✧ baked by tiny ✧

Collaborations weren’t uncommon for 3RACHA. They worked with other artists plenty of times, as well as many other producers, even some from other countries. They had always thought that working with new people was a great opportunity to showcase what they could do, so it was rare for them to turn down a collaboration. Therefore, when they got an offer for a collaboration ahead of their next comeback, they took it.

That’s what led the three producers to where they are now, waiting in their studio for word from their collaborator. The atmosphere was pretty chill, all three of them scrolling mindlessly on their phones as they waited.

“So, do we know anything about this person?” Jisung spoke up, dropping his phone into his lap.

Chan sighed deeply before responding, “Just that they’re newer, but they have some big names in their portfolio already.” He leaned forward to scroll through his laptop, looking through the brief introduction they were sent.

“That’s good,” Changbin chimed in. “Means they should already have some good experience.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Chan hummed as he continued to scroll. “I mean, there are some pretty noteworthy Western artists on here. Looks like they’ve worked with a couple of smaller Korean artists as well. It’s mostly smaller Indie groups, though, quite a few repeats.”

“That’s still good, though. Sounds like their portfolio is pretty diverse,” Jisung added, leaning in to look at Chan’s laptop screen.

“Yeah, I mean-” Chan got cut off by his laptop pinging, an email from their collaborator, the first of many. The email reads:

Good afternoon, I’m Arktau, the producer from the collaboration, but feel free to call me Y/N. I’m very excited to be working with you all, both as 3RACHA and as Stray Kids! Here are a couple of links to some beats I had in mind. Feel free to make or suggest changes and send them back to me, or just choose the one you like best. I’ve also attached a link to a calendar containing my schedule. I’ll check it every morning, so please fill in any times that would be good to work together over an audio call. Otherwise, I’m always available at this email. Thank you, Arktau

“They sound nice,” Changbin shrugged from over Chan’s shoulder.

“Play one of the beats,” Jisung nudged Chan’s arm.

The night went from there, playing the few beat samples they were sent, transferring them to their own tech, and making a few changes. They were all slightly shocked at how well each of them blended into their usual music style, a little loud, on the powerful side while allowing for softer moments. They all got lost in the music, in listening to every detail, in starting to make it their own, so much so that Chan almost forgot to email Arktau back. He remembered just as they were about to leave the studio, and he told Changbin and Jisung that he’d catch up to them.

Good evening, As I’m sure you know, I’m Chan, or just Chris, the leader of Stray Kids. 3RACHA is also really excited to be working with you! Your portfolio is really interesting, and we all loved the samples you sent over. We played around with each of them and made a few tweaks. They’re all attached to this email. Let me know your thoughts! I’ll look at that calendar ASAP and schedule some good times to call. Thank you for being so flexible with our work schedule right now (and for being so organized in your planning, haha!). Talk soon, Bang Chan

The first time they were able to call to work out some of the lyrics was two days later. Chan was alone in the studio, not wanting to overwhelm them with the chaos of 3RACHA all being in one room. He was humming the melody of one of the possible instrumentals for tracks as he messed around on his laptop, waiting for their call.

When his ringtone harshly cut into his melody, he took a deep breath, getting himself in the right headspace. It was always difficult to tell how these things would play out, but he had hope. Arktau seemed very professional and put together, but also easygoing, based on their willingness to let the guys make some changes to their beats.

“Hello?” he answered neutrally.

“Hey! Bang Chan, right?” he heard their voice reply.

“That’s me. Arktau?”

“Yeah, but really, feel free to call me Y/N,” they responded. He could almost hear the smile in their voice.

“Okay, Y/N, it is,” he chuckles. “I guess we should start by picking which base track we like best?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Is there a particular one that catches your attention or anything?” He heard something that vaguely resembled typing through the speaker. They were probably logging into their setup.

“Honestly, that second beat you sent has been stuck in my head since we first listened to it,” he admitted, referring to the same melody he was humming before they called. “Maybe that’s the one?”

“That certainly sounds like a great place to start,” Y/N concurred.

From there, everything flowed nicely. The track Chan chose seemed to be the perfect fit, and the two of them worked well together. They had similar work ethics, a drive for each and every detail to be just right, but their styles were still unique enough for them to add to one another’s ideas. They would sneak jokes in between tasks, while still staying right on track, working in tandem. It was comfortable, much more so than first meetings usually are.

“Alright, I think that’s a good stopping place, no?” They sighed, and Chan heard their chair squeak, like they’d leaned back in it.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve definitely made a decision on which beat to use, and I think we’ve come about as far as we can without the other guys helping out,” he agreed.

“Perfect. You said you guys had some time available tomorrow, right? Wanna call again then?”

“Sounds great. I’ll message you when we all get here, and you can call whenever,” he offered, nodding although they can’t see him.

“That works. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, then. See ya,” they replied, not waiting for an answer before hanging up.

The next day, he got to introduce them to some of the other Stray Kids members. He, Changbin, and Jisung were all waiting patiently in the studio. Chan’s knee was bouncing under the desk, hoping that his friends wouldn’t be too weird with their collaborator. When he finally got the call, he shot them all a look before answering.

“Hey, Y/N,” he greeted them.

“Hey! Everyone’s here this time, right?”

“Yep, Changbin and Jisung are with me-”

“Hi, Y/N!” Jisung cut in.

“We’ve heard so much about you,” Changbin smirked.

“Not that much,” Chan corrected, glaring at the other two. Sure, he had filled them in on how the session went the night before, but he hadn’t thought he’d gone on that long.

“Oh, great,” Y/N laughed. “So where do we start?”

Again, the session went nearly flawlessly. There were a few more distractions then, but that was to be expected with how Changbin and Jisung bicker. Still, Y/N had fit into their dynamic so well, and it made everything easier. They easily fell back into the playful banter from the night before with Chan, something he couldn’t help but notice they didn’t do with the other two.

They were forced to wrap up around lunch due to some other schedules they had in the afternoon, but they’d gotten quite a bit done on the song, coming close to finalizing the instrumental and getting a start on some lyrics. Chan let out a long sigh before whirling his desk chair around to face where Changbin and Jisung sat on the couch. He rolled his eyes when he noticed their smirks.

“What’re those faces for?”

“Nothing,” Changbin shrugged, still grinning.

“You two work well together,” Jisung hummed.

“Shut up,” Chan snorted, waving them off. “It’s not like that. It’s just work.”

“Alright, if you say so.” Jisung let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head a bit. “Let’s go grab some lunch, then.”

“Yes, please,” Changbin chimed in, standing up from the couch.

A few nights later, Chan was staying late at the studio, partly because some songs needed touch-ups outside of the collab and partly because he couldn’t sleep anyway. His laptop pinged with another notification. He almost ignored it until he saw the email address at the top. Y/N.

Hey Chan, I’ve been working on a few things today, both for you guys and some other projects I’m doing, but there’s one part of the track that I just can’t get out of my head. I tweaked the second verse just a teensy bit. I know we’re pretty far into things, especially after hitting the halfway mark in recording today. Maybe I should’ve run it by you guys first?? Idk, but I think this fits the feel you all want more. If you like it, that’s great, but if it’s absolute garbage, we can scrap it and go back to the original. I attached it to this email. Give it a listen and lmk. Thanks! Y/N

He’d considered just letting it wait until tomorrow, but his curiosity got the better of him. He listened through the demo they’d sent, and unsurprisingly, they were right. He hadn’t even realized something was missing, but the change gave him some ideas for a couple of other parts of the track. He replied to the email immediately.

Hey Y/N, First of all, you definitely did not need to run that by us! It’s your song, too. Also, that was most definitely NOT garbage. I didn’t even think there was something to be added there, but that was the perfect addition. It actually gave me some ideas for a few other minor tweaks. If you aren’t busy right now, we could call and work it out together? I’m not doing anything important anyway. Best, Chan

Not ten minutes later, his phone rang on the desk in front of him. He smiled without thinking, swiftly pressing the green button. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey, yourself. Is it not like 2:00 a.m. there?” They asked on the other end of the line, a slight chuckle hiding in their words.

“The life of an insomniac,” he snorted. “So about the track…”

“Straight to business, I see,” they laughed back. He could almost envision them shaking their head.

“I’m a professional,” he replied, faux seriousness dripping from his voice.

“Oh, I’m sure you are, Mr. Bang.” He found his heart beating just a bit more rapidly at their sarcasm, at the easy banter between the two of them. “So, you liked the adjustment?”

“I actually loved it. How did you even think of that?” He already had the track pulled up on his laptop, ready to look at what they’d had and to add if needed.

“I actually have no clue,” they chuckled through the speaker. “I just had this, like, two-second melody stuck in my head, and I looked to see if you guys had added anything, and it hit me that it would fit perfectly.”

“Well, it was genius,” he mused. He lifted his beanie off, running a hand through his messy hair before slipping it back on his head. “So, I also had a little idea for the bridge…”

The two worked together flawlessly, bouncing ideas off one another like they’d been co-producers for years. Before either of them knew it, it had been nearly two hours, and they hadn’t touched the song in at least forty-five minutes.

Conversation had drifted elsewhere: work, hobbies, the last good meal they ate. You name it, they discussed it. It was crazy, the pull that Chan felt toward Y/N. He’d become good friends with plenty of the other producers and artists 3RACHA had collaborated with, but this was different. Making friends had never felt like this, but Chan didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

“So… Arktau. Where does that come from?” Chan asked after the conversation had lulled a bit.

He heard them chuckle a bit before answering, “Honestly?” They waited for him to nod before continuing. “I needed a producer name and couldn’t think of anything, so I just kind of… keyboard smashed. That’s what I got, and I thought it sounded cool.”

He let out an abrupt laugh. “You’re joking, right?” They shook their head, giggling as well.

“Well…” Chan started. “That’s actually kind of sick,” he finished with a huff.

He admired their honesty, but also their willingness to use free will. He didn’t get to do that all too often, so to see them using it for something as simple as their producer name spoke to him. Quite a few of their habits spoke to him, but he wouldn’t be admitting why that was any time soon.

He didn’t have time for a crush, let alone a whole relationship. He had a group to lead, music to produce. He was in the studio more often than not; that wouldn’t make a good partner. Still, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. The longer the collaboration went on, the more he’d talked to them, every single time they had one of those calls when it was the middle of the night in Korea, he fell harder.

He saw how effortlessly funny they were. He got to experience them in their element first-hand. He fell easily into banter with them, whether the others were around or it was just the two of them. It was too easy to catch feelings; this could get out of hand if he didn’t reel it in.

As the collaboration neared its end, Chan and Y/N needed to schedule an in-person session to splice the vocals together more coherently. They’d been working for around an hour, murmuring back and forth about which version of the vocals fits better. It was going well, but Chan kept finding himself getting distracted by them, their voice, their beauty, their confidence. He kept having to shake himself out of it, remind himself that he was working.

At one point, he let out a long sigh, leaning back in his chair. He ruffled his hair a bit before dragging his hand down his face. “We’re at that point where it feels like it’s never gonna come together,” he laughed tiredly.

“I know,” they groaned back. “We’ll get there, though.”

“You wanna run down to the lobby for some snacks or something? A little pick-me-up…”

“That sounds amazing, actually,” they nodded. Just as they were grabbing their things to head to the lobby, their phone rings. “Oh- sorry, one second. I’m just gonna answer this really quickly. Is it cool if I…?” They trailed off, pointing toward the soundproof booth.

Chan nodded automatically. He understood more than anyone that privacy is important. He watched, though, as they walked into the booth. He honestly had zero intentions of listening, but the mics were apparently left on. He heard them greeting what sounds like a friend on the phone, but before he could reach to turn off the mic, they said something that caught his attention.

“Yeah, it’s going really well. He’s nice. Well, more than nice; he’s actually really funny. Yes, and he’s kind of cute… Really cute. It’s actually sort of criminal how attractive he is,” they’d mused. He felt his cheeks turn pink. They think he’s criminally attractive?

He couldn’t stop himself from listening as they went on. “I mean, no. He’s, like, a perfect gentleman, definitely not like most guys. He’s so chill, and I don’t even really think he’s been, like, staring or anything. He’s not creepy.”

His flush only deepened, except this time it was in embarrassment. He had been staring. It would be hard not to! He thought they were gorgeous. Yeah, he’d stared a little, so what? Still, he was listening to their conversation, which was arguably worse. His arm shot out clumsily, pressing the button to turn off the mics. He didn’t need to hear anymore.

A few minutes later, Y/N came out of the booth, smiling and ready to go grab some snacks. He pretended like he hadn’t heard a thing, like he hadn’t spent the rest of that phone call getting his cheeks to turn back to their normal shade. He hated this, the way his heart was singing from finding out they thought he was attractive, the way he was already trying to find a way to get them back to the studio in person again.

He had thought he could ignore it, his ever-growing feelings for them. He was a professional after all. However, his chest started feeling tighter when he thought about them. That gentle flutter in his stomach when he spoke with them turned into something that made him feel sick. Then, one day it happened.

They’d just emailed him, asking if he was available to call and work on some last-minute things on the track, and right as he was about to happily agree, he felt a tickle in the back of his throat, triggering a cough. That cough turned into two, which turned into five, and soon enough, he felt like he couldn’t catch his breath, like something was stuck in his throat, keeping him from breathing.

He hunched over, hand resting on the control desk for support as he continued to cough. His free hand moved to his chest, rubbing like that would help his situation. Slowly, the tickle in his throat turned into a burning sensation, and he felt something coming up. The coughing became more violent as he tried to dislodge whatever was in his throat. Finally, after one particularly good cough, air was once again freely flowing through his esophagus with a wheeze.

As he caught his breath, his eyes fluttered open after being clenched shut, brows still furrowed as he tries to find whatever had been choking him. All he could see was a little blue flower, but it couldn’t have been that. How would a flower even end up in his throat anyway? Still, he knew it wasn’t there a moment ago. There weren’t any flowers in the studio.

He didn’t quite feel comfortable going to the staff about this, fearing they would just think he’s insane for thinking he might’ve coughed up a flower. So, he went to one of the people he trusts the most, Minho. He knew he was ignoring Y/N’s email, but it would just have to wait. They’d probably just assume he’s busy anyway, which he technically was.

When he got to Minho and Jisung’s dorm, Jisung was, thankfully, out at the moment. Telling one person is scary enough, and Jisung wasn’t exactly known for his seriousness, not that he couldn’t be. It’s just that if any of the members were to laugh at Chan for this story, it would be him.

“Slow down,” Minho started, forcing Chan to sit down on the couch to stop his incessant pacing. “Go through that one more time. Slowly.”

“Okay, so I was in the studio, right? Everything was completely normal, but then I start coughing,” Chan began again, hands already running through his hair.

“Ah, yes, coughing. How rare,” Minho hummed, resulting in a glare from Chan. He lifted his hands in defense before motioning for Chan to continue.

“I start coughing, and I can’t stop, and it just felt like- like there was something blocking my breathing, you know? So, I’m like wheezing and stuff, trying to get some air while I cough this thing up. Eventually, I get out, so I catch my breath for a second before trying to find whatever it was, and I don’t know, mate. I just… I feel insane…”

“So, what was it?” Minho asked, feeling like he was missing something.

Chan reached into his pocket, pulling out the tiny, blue flower, and he held it out to his friend. “This was the only thing I could find, but there’s no way, right? Like, why would anyone be coughing up flowers, of all things?”

Chan was expecting Minho to anchor him, to snort and tell him he’s crazy, that he had to have missed something on the studio floor. Instead, Chan watched as Minho’s face paled.

“There wasn’t anything else?” Minho choked out. “That’s the only thing you could’ve coughed up?”

“Y-Yeah! That was literally the only thing on the floor, and I know it wasn’t there before I started coughing. What- What are you doing?” Chan’s eyes followed Minho as he stood up. Apparently, it was his turn to pace.

After a moment, he stopped in his tracks before turning straight to Chan. “There’s this old Japanese legend my mom told me one time…”

“What? What does that have to do with-”

“Shut up. Look, I had a crush, and she told me this to make me feel better. In the legend, if you have unrequited feelings for someone, a plant would begin to grow in your lungs. You’d cough up petals, or flowers, or leaves, or whatever all day. She told me that as long as I wasn’t coughing up flowers, I would be okay,” Minho shared.

“So… what?”

“So, I’m asking who you’re in love with,” Minho deadpanned.

Immediately, Chan shook his head in denial. “I-I’m not-”

“You are,” Minho insisted. “You are because you’re coughing up flowers, and you need to confess because if you keep it to yourself, you’ll die.”

“I’ll what?” Chan shot up from his seat, eyes wide as saucers as he stares at his friend.

“In the legend, there are three possible outcomes. The one you love returns your feelings, which will stop the plant from growing, but won’t kill it entirely, and then when they confess, as long as they mean it, the plant will begin to shrink until it disappears from your lungs completely,” Minho explained.

“What are the other two options? What if the feelings aren’t reciprocated?”

“Best case scenario… you have a special surgery done, assuming there’s a doctor that would be able to do it, but in doing so, you’ll lose all of your feelings for that person.”

“And the last option?” Chan already knew from Minho’s earlier statement, but he needed to hear it.

“The flowers take over your lungs, eventually suffocating you completely,” Minho finished quietly. Chan felt his heart sink to his stomach, a slow descent.

“I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them soon, and if they don’t feel the same, I’ll get the surgery. I won’t leave you guys like that,” he decided without hesitation after the information sank in. His eyes met Minho’s again, and he saw the quiet relief in his friend.

“Good. Just don’t wait too long, okay?” Minho’s eyes were sincere as he looked back at his leader, his friend, his brother.

“I won’t.”

That night, back at his shared apartment with Jeongin, Chan sat in his room, scouring the internet until he found the type of flowers he was coughing up. Eventually, he stumbled upon a picture, a perfect match for the flower that he’d stared at on the floor of the studio. Forget-Me-Nots. He clicked the link on the photo, letting it take him to a page full of information on the little bloom.

He found out that they grow best in moist soil, like what would be found at a pond’s edge. He learned that they were often used to commemorate traditions. Makes sense. He also discovered that they symbolized true love and faithful devotion, and that certainly didn’t make him feel better. What a funny sense of humor the universe had. The flower that could kill him because of some kind of love disease symbolizes devotion.

Just four days later, the collaboration was coming to an end. The files had been sent to be approved, and there were only a few loose threads to tie up. The other guys had gone back to the dorms for the night, but per usual, Chan was still at the studio. His laptop pinged with one last email from Y/N.

Hey Chan, Just wanted to say one more time how much fun I’ve had with this collab. All of you were literal angels to work with, and I loved every second. I’m so proud of the track we made, and I can’t wait until it’s released. I also just wanted to say that I really enjoyed getting to know you- all of you. I just feel like we clicked really well, and you’re amazing to talk with (speaking about everyone again lolll). I’m hoping we could maybe stay in touch? Idk, that might be weird… Anyway, I had a great time working so closely with you all. Hope to hear from you soon. Best, Y/N

He read it. Then, he read it again, trying to read between the lines, to see if they were really just asking for friendship. What if this was an opening? What if they felt the same but didn’t know how to say it yet.

His coughing had been getting worse. It came more often, and it was getting harder to stop. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep hiding it from the other members. He needed a plan, which meant he needed to know if they felt the same.

So, he drafted an email. Then, he erased it all and rewrote it. Then, he deleted the second half before adding it back, only changing a couple of words. After countless rewrites, an existential crisis, and three coughing fits, he finally had what he thought was a good confession.

Hey Y/N, We all loved working with you, too, and we’d love to do it again some time! You fit in so well with our dynamic, and we made an amazing track together. Also, I’d love to keep in touch with you. Working with and getting to know you has been such an amazing experience, and I feel like we click in a way that I don’t with other people. What I’m getting at is that I think somewhere along the way, I developed feelings for you… I don’t know if it was the banter between us or how easy it was to work with you, but I haven’t been able to get you off my mind. If you aren’t feeling the same, I totally understand. I just needed you to know. Talk soon? Chan

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there staring at the email, too scared to press send. His thoughts took over his brain quickly, making him rethink everything. What if she said no, and it made this stupid disease worse than it already was? What if she said yes, but he ruined it anyway because his schedule doesn’t leave room to be a good boyfriend? Would that be worth it?

As he stared at the screen, he felt that familiar tingle in his throat, shaking his head as he pushed his chair back from the desk, waiting for the wheezing to start. In less than a minute, it had set in, one of the worst fits he’d had.

He leaned over in the chair, hands braced on his thighs as coughs wracked his body. They seemed to hit him harder and harder, petals flying out occasionally. The hacking eventually sent him to his knees, slipping from his desk chair and into the floor.

That’s how Changbin and Jisung found him when they came in to help out in the studio, on his hands and knees on the floor, hacking up those small, blue flowers. There was a pile of them on the hardwood, and the two younger men shared a terrified look.

Changbin moved first, helping Chan to stand up. Jisung followed quickly, saving everything Chan was working on without thinking, including the email draft, before packing up Chan’s laptop. They silently agreed to take him to the second-oldest member of the group, Minho. He would know what to do.

Changbin drove like a man with a mission, maybe because the man he’d been looking up to for years was lying in his back seat, pale with nausea after supposedly coughing up a huge pile of flowers. He made eye contact with Jisung, who was sitting in the back with Chan, through the rear-view mirror. Concern was evident in their eyes, but also fear for their leader.

By the time they made it to Jisung and Minho’s apartment, Chan had choked up another small pile of flowers. The two of them lugged him inside the building and toward the elevator, being his support until they could drop him on the couch in the apartment.

“What’s going on?” Minho asked, brows furrowed as his eyes darted between Chan and the two younger men.

“We don’t know!” Jisung replied, clearly distressed. “We got to the studio, and he was on the floor, coughing up flowers.”

“I can’t believe it’s this bad already…” Minho mumbled under his breath before springing into action. “Get him some water. He’s gonna need to stay hydrated.”

Jisung nodded, bolting toward their kitchen to get some water for Chan. Changbin stood there, feeling rather useless. He eventually rested a hand on Chan’s shoulder, silently letting him know that he was there for him.

Chan ended up being forced to stay under Minho’s intense care, being watched as often as possible. He could feel the silent judgment from Minho, the glares telling him that he should be looking at surgeons. Chan didn’t bother; he knew Minho was already searching.

A few days passed without word from Chan, and Y/N began to worry. It was unlike him to go so long without responding… What if they messed up? What if they’d pushed too hard? He probably wouldn’t want to stay friends; they should’ve known that was a silly idea. They were temporary co-workers. That’s it.

That thought stung a bit. Temporary co-workers. He probably wouldn’t ever think about them again. Meanwhile, he was their ideal type. Wait- what? No, they couldn’t be thinking like that… Except they had been thinking about that since that very first phone call, actually. They were thinking about that not too long ago when telling their best friend how perfect he is.

They knew why they really wanted to stay friends with Chan. They wanted to become more than friends with him. They just hadn’t admitted that to themselves until then, and there he was, straight up ignoring them. At least they had an answer, though, they supposed.

Simultaneously, at Minho and Jisung’s apartment, Chan had to pause a moment. The incessant tickling in his chest had stopped all of a sudden. He could still feel the plant poking at the inside of his lungs; he was still coughing every few minutes, but something inside him had eased a bit. Unfortunately, he went right back to coughing, the weakness from the disease getting the better of him still.

The thought kept eating at Y/N, though. What if something was seriously wrong? Surely one of the other members would have realized by then, right? They could message one of them… They had all of 3RACHA’s phone numbers at that point. At least then, they would know for sure if he was unwell or just avoiding them. They ended up throwing caution to the wind; it was worth a shot.

Hey Changbin. I was just wondering if Chan is doing alright?? I messaged him the day the collab officially ended but I haven’t gotten anything in response…

When Changbin got the notification, he felt conflicted. It wasn’t his place to air out Chan’s business, even though he’d been completely filled in about what was going on at this point, but they deserved some kind of answer. Besides, maybe he could be of help.

Hey! He’s feeling a little under the weather right now. Have you tried reaching out again, though? I’m positive he’d love to hear from you.

He had made it sound so simple, like it wasn’t one of the most daunting things they’d ever had to do. They sat on what they were gonna say for an entire day, and when it came down to it, they still couldn’t force themselves to actually type it out. They recorded a voice note instead.

“Hey, Chan. I don’t know if you got my message or not the other day, but you haven’t answered, and I got a little worried… I messaged Changbin to see if you were alright, and he said that you might wanna hear from me, so this is me checking up on you, I guess.” They paused for a moment, taking a breath before continuing.

“I also just wanted to say that I’m sorry if that email made you uncomfortable. That wasn’t my intention at all. I just really enjoyed getting to know you and spending time with you, and I just thought that maybe you’d also be interested in staying friends… I know I still might’ve accidentally come off as pushy or something, though, or maybe I was too forward. I just can’t really help it. You kinda make my head spin,” they laughed.

“I guess I just caught feelings for you at some point, but that just kind of feels inevitable, you know? Like you’re insanely hot, and you’re funny and sweet, and we were working in such close proximity, and-” They cut themselves off when their brain caught up to their mouth.

“Oh, my god. What am I doing? I can’t say that! Delete. Delete,” they hissed as the recording cut off. They rushed to delete the voice note, terrified of accidentally sending it, but that’s exactly what they ended up doing in their haste.

Unfortunately for their dignity, Chan was having a good day, feeling a bit stronger than he had in recent days, so he was on his phone for once. When he saw the voice note come through, he pressed play immediately, not knowing that Y/N’s heart plummeted through the floor when they saw the “Read” notification under the little bubble.

He listened intently to the message, feeling a bit guilty for accidentally ghosting them. That was the last thing on his mind, though, when he heard them confess to having feelings for him. He nearly dropped his phone when he actually felt the plant in his chest shrinking. His free hand moved quickly, pressing into his chest as he felt the amount of room he had in his lungs for air grow. His hand trailed up to his throat after a moment, just as a gasp tore through him.

It was gone. The plant was gone, and he could breathe again, which meant that they had meant it. They meant every single thing they’d said. They felt the same, and now he had to do something about it because he was not about to let this opportunity go to waste. He quickly opened his email app, going straight to the drafts, hoping his confession had saved. After thanking his lucky stars that it had, he took a screenshot, immediately sending it to them through their message chat before following it up with another text.

This was supposed to be my reply to your email on the last day of the collab. Any chance we could meet up? We should talk in person.

Y/N’s jaw dropped when they saw the screenshot of the email draft. That was the last response they had been expecting. Without a second thought, they shot back another text.

I’m free right now if you are? That cafe on Main and Fifth?

He agreed instantly, grabbing whatever was nearest as he began to rush to get out of Minho and Jisung’s place. As he hurried toward the door, he passed a confused Minho. “They confessed! Flowers are gone! Gotta go see them! See ya!” He left no room for a reply as he basically ran out the door, completely missing Minho’s impressed nod.

At the little cafe they’d met up at, he’d gone through the entire store, start to finish. He watched them go through an entire rollercoaster of emotions, mainly negative ones, before coming to a close.

“Let me get this straight… You caught some kind of mythical disease because you had feelings for me while I didn’t want to admit to having feelings? And it made you cough up flowers-”

“Forget-Me-Nots,” he cut in, correcting them.

“It made you cough up Forget-Me-Nots until I confessed?” They finished with a deadpan look, finding his story hard to believe while simultaneously struggling to doubt him.

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” he nodded. “But none of that matters now, because we’re both here, and we both know how the other feels…”

“I mean, yeah, but, like, that’s crazy, Chan,” they argued, failing to see how he’s being so casual about it all.

“Look, yeah, it was pretty insane, but if I got anything from that experience, it was that I can’t sit around and wait for the perfect moment. If I want something, I have to chase it. In light of that, I would really, really love it if you’d let me take you out on a date sometime…” His eyebrows were slightly raised as he finished, eyes searching theirs hopefully.

“I would also really love that, Chan, but don’t think we’re glossing past this-”

“I know. I know,” he laughed, cutting them off. “Just let me live, okay?” He reached across the table, gently taking their hand in his. “I’m a little more focused on new beginnings right now. I don’t have time to look back on the past.”

The light in his eyes was enough to convince them to let it slide for the moment. He was right. Sure, that was an outrageous situation, but he’d made it through. They could be together; they could be happy, and they should be. It’s the least he deserves. When coming away from something like that, the only thing to do is let yourself be happy and stop holding yourself back. That’s a lesson neither of them would soon forget.

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