2015: When I Was Two (Baekhyun/Baekhyun)
Pairing: Baekhyun + Bai Xian
From: ANONYMOUS until REVEALS
Title: When I Was Two
Rating: PG
Other Pairing(s)/Focus: friends!Bai Xian/Zitao, cousins!Baekhyun/Taehyung (BTS)
Length: 1,720 words
Summary: The word doppelgänger floats through Baekhyun's head until he happens to glance slightly lower and notices that the him standing across the counter from him has boobs.
Notes: The title is from the poem Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne.
"Hey guess what?" Taehyung bounces into the café, accidentally knocking over the straw container for the fifth time today alone and picks it up without skipping a beat. Baekhyun is just happy that the straws are all individually wrapped in paper "for quality assurance purposes" because otherwise they'd be going through more straws than pipes for the arctic pipeline.
"What?" Baekhyun asks, as Hyukoh sings I never thought you were such a traitor over the speakers, accompanied by an infectious rhythm and sticky beat. He doesn't really want to know what Taehyung is thinking but he knows that Taehyung will tell him anyway, and this way he might save a few straws.
"Be kind to your cousin," his mom had said over the phone, "he's having a bad summer, you would too if your older sister-" he could hear her pause to wipe her eyes, and felt bad for complaining, "-if your older sister was in a coma." Baekhyun had tried to picture Baekbeom in a coma and couldn't do it, but he guessed that's what everyone always thought, before it happened.
"I promise," he'd said, but looking at Taehyung now, accidentally squirting the simple syrup and looking around furtively as he wipes up the sticky mess with napkins, it's harder than it sounded over the telephone.
Everyone says that Taehyung is exactly like Baekhyun was at that age and Baekhyun wonders how Kyungsoo hadn't killed him.
"I saw your doppelgänger!" Taehyung exclaims, looking more like five than eighteen. Baekhyun wishes he could send him to kindergarten.
"My what?" The word Taehyung said sounded like German, yet another barrier between the two cousins. Baekhyun doesn't speak any German at all and Taehyung tends to fall back into it when he's excited, forgetting that the average Korean isn't multilingual.
Over the speakers, Hyukoh starts singing in Mandarin.
"Your double!" Taehyung continues, waving his arms in excitement. "You know, everyone has one!" Baekhyun still doesn't know what Taehyung is talking about, but he smiles and nods and does his best impression of one of the penguins from Madagascar so that Taehyung will be satisfied and maybe leave the café again and take the subway somewhere far away. Like Cheonan. That would be nice. He might even miss the last subway back and that would be Even Nicer. Then he'll call and Baekhyun will tell him to stay at their great-aunt's house and conveniently forget to tell him that there's still a KTX train. He's a good cousin. Great Aunt Joy, as she likes to be called, is a nice lady with too much time and too many cats.
"A double?" Baekhyun replies, in a tone of voice that means, "that's a very nice idea child now go away." As Taehyung sighs, turning away-though not before he sends the drinking straws to the floor one last time, Baekhyun just waving him off-Baekhyun straightens and looks at himself in the mirror.
I'm turning into Kyungsoo, Baekhyun realizes, and the thought is so scary that he makes himself an espresso and downs a couple shots until he feels better, the bitter taste in his mouth reminding him that he's Baekhyun and he doesn't like coffee very much but he likes working at this coffee shop because it's a good summer job between university semesters with free cake before closing and he gets to talk to people, unlike Kyungsoo who works at the museum and is slowly turning into a mummy.
After the post-noon rush, when the people who have time are grabbing coffee after eating far too much food at the overcrowded restaurants, there's always a slump before the post-dinner flood. Right now the café is quiet, just a few scattered tourists here and there and the occasional student bent over textbooks, the rare bird taking summer classes or trying to apply abroad. Baekhyun wonders what they're thinking. He's happy enough restricting his studies to the fall, winter and spring; the summer is short enough as it is, and even then he has club meetings and things to go to.
The automatic doors slide open as he's wiping the counter for something to do, wondering if he should call Jongdae or if Chanyeol is back from backpacking across Europe after his sister's wedding in Switzerland, and doesn't look up from straightening the container of individually-wrapped "for quality assurance purposes" straws until he hears someone asking for two lattes.
In his own voice, or rather, in his own voice if he spoke Korean with a Chinese accent.
Baekhyun looks up and sees his face looking at him. His face looks surprised, stepping back, and the word doppelgänger floats through Baekhyun's head until he happens to glance slightly lower and notices that the him standing across the counter from him has boobs.
They're pretty nice boobs, actually. Baekhyun wonders, idly, what it's like to be Baekhyun with boobs, before he shakes his head. What's going on?
"Who are you?" his voice asks, the vowels strangely inflected, and Baekhyun feels, strangely enough, that his inherent Baekhyun-ness is being attacked.
"I'm Baekhyun," he says, pausing to look at the other him more closely. "Who are you?"
"I'm Bai Xian," the other him, Bai Xian says, and Baekhyun feels a strange ephemeral envy at how liquid her name sounds in her mouth. Because it is a her, he can see that clearly now. Except she looks exactly like him, which is just weird when he thinks about it so he tries not to.
"I feel kind of awkward saying this," Baekhyun says-but he's more curious than awkward, because he's looking at his face on a different person and it still somehow feels like it belongs to him in a kind of subconscious way, the way the city where you live is "your city" and the school you go to is "your school"-"but you have my face." He realizes, just a beat after, that what he said could be interpreted as rude. Oh well.
There's a snort from beside Bai Xian, and Baekhyun realizes that Bai Xian isn't alone, like he'd initially thought. There's a tall guy standing next to her, bright purple hair that makes Baekhyun in his cotton candy blond and pink hair feel slightly defensive.
"I think you're the one who has Bai Xian's face," he says, but he's laughing. Baekhyun feels like he deserves to be poked in the ribs, but Bai Xian does it for him.
"Shut up Zitao," she says, and smirks when he grumbles. Her eyes catch Baekhyun's over the counter, and she winks. I like you.
"Two lattes?" Baekhyun asks, and Bai Xian nods; there's a muffled "oof" as she hands her card across the counter and Baekhyun suspects she's stepping on Zitao's foot.
It's about time for his break anyway, so when he has the lattes ready he looks over where Bai Xian is sitting and Zitao grins and nods.
"Why don't you join us?"
Baekhyun doesn't even think twice about making himself a macchiato and slipping into a seat at their table, even if they are obviously friends out grabbing coffee if not an official couple. Jongdae doesn't call him shameless for nothing.
"So, I'm curious," Baekhyun says, after they've all taken sips of their coffee and have milk foam on their lips. "What's your story?" It feels like he's interviewing himself, a self that grew up in a different country with a different gender. It feels like science fiction, or a great story to tell when he's out drinking with friends.
"Is this going to be a fair trade?" Bai Xian asks, but Baekhyun can tell she's just as curious. Next to her, Zitao rolls his eyes but he's smiling too.
"Of course," Baekhyun says. "I'm Byun Baekhyun, I'm a student at K-ARTS, this is my summer job, I grew up in Bucheon but I kind of like Seoul, and my friends are annoying. You should meet them."
Bai Xian just laughs, and takes another sip of latte.
"I'm Bian Bai Xian," she says, "and I like my name more than yours." She pauses, as though waiting for Baekhyun to disagree, but he actually kind of likes her name better too so he doesn't say anything. She's smirking as she continues, and he knows that she knows. "I'm an exchange student at HUFS, but I come from Shenzen."
"HUFS?" Baekhyun raised his eyebrows. "That's right next to K-ARTS. What are you studying?"
"Korean," Bai Xian says, and Baekhyun nods, of course, "and Swedish." At that, he raises his eyebrows.
"Hey Swedish is cool!" Bai Xian protests; beside her Zitao is laughing into his hand, trying to muffle the sounds but she spares him no mercy and elbows him in the ribs. "My aunt lives in Sweden."
Baekhyun pictures Bai Xian against the backdrop of the latest Swedish movie he'd seen, Let the Right One In because they were supposed to do a comparison between a Scandinavian film and a Hollywood remake, and all he can think of is Bai Xian the child vampire jumping on unsuspecting strangers. It's oddly fitting.
His phone beeps then, break time is up and Jonghyun will scold him if he takes too much time over again.
"Sorry," he says, "I have to go." Bai Xian looks at him, and there's just something about her-she looks like the perfect accomplice. And you never know, Swedish might come in handy. "What's your number?" Baekhyun asks, throwing all caution to the wind. "Your university is so close, you should totally meet my jerks of friends."
He glances over at Zitao, wondering if he'll object, but Zitao looks curious too. "You should come too," Baekhyun says, and Zitao flashes him a quick smile. More friends are always good, and even more friends are better, at least in his books. And the fact that, if Bai Xian looks like the type of person who would fit right into a horror movie, Zitao looks like the type to start crying five minutes in, that doesn't hurt either.
Bai Xian recites her number, Baekhyun typing it into his phone before heading back to work behind the counter, grinning, and even Taehyung's unfortunate return from Cheonan the next morning, sneezing and covered in cat hair, doesn't dampen his spirits.
This is going to be a great year, he thinks to himself, anticipating the mischief ahead.
End Note: The last subway from Cheonan to Seoul is actually at midnight, which is later than the last train, but I've swapped the timings for plot purposes. Please forgive the meddling.
From: ANONYMOUS until REVEALS
Title: When I Was Two
Rating: PG
Other Pairing(s)/Focus: friends!Bai Xian/Zitao, cousins!Baekhyun/Taehyung (BTS)
Length: 1,720 words
Summary: The word doppelgänger floats through Baekhyun's head until he happens to glance slightly lower and notices that the him standing across the counter from him has boobs.
Notes: The title is from the poem Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne.
"Hey guess what?" Taehyung bounces into the café, accidentally knocking over the straw container for the fifth time today alone and picks it up without skipping a beat. Baekhyun is just happy that the straws are all individually wrapped in paper "for quality assurance purposes" because otherwise they'd be going through more straws than pipes for the arctic pipeline.
"What?" Baekhyun asks, as Hyukoh sings I never thought you were such a traitor over the speakers, accompanied by an infectious rhythm and sticky beat. He doesn't really want to know what Taehyung is thinking but he knows that Taehyung will tell him anyway, and this way he might save a few straws.
"Be kind to your cousin," his mom had said over the phone, "he's having a bad summer, you would too if your older sister-" he could hear her pause to wipe her eyes, and felt bad for complaining, "-if your older sister was in a coma." Baekhyun had tried to picture Baekbeom in a coma and couldn't do it, but he guessed that's what everyone always thought, before it happened.
"I promise," he'd said, but looking at Taehyung now, accidentally squirting the simple syrup and looking around furtively as he wipes up the sticky mess with napkins, it's harder than it sounded over the telephone.
Everyone says that Taehyung is exactly like Baekhyun was at that age and Baekhyun wonders how Kyungsoo hadn't killed him.
"I saw your doppelgänger!" Taehyung exclaims, looking more like five than eighteen. Baekhyun wishes he could send him to kindergarten.
"My what?" The word Taehyung said sounded like German, yet another barrier between the two cousins. Baekhyun doesn't speak any German at all and Taehyung tends to fall back into it when he's excited, forgetting that the average Korean isn't multilingual.
Over the speakers, Hyukoh starts singing in Mandarin.
"Your double!" Taehyung continues, waving his arms in excitement. "You know, everyone has one!" Baekhyun still doesn't know what Taehyung is talking about, but he smiles and nods and does his best impression of one of the penguins from Madagascar so that Taehyung will be satisfied and maybe leave the café again and take the subway somewhere far away. Like Cheonan. That would be nice. He might even miss the last subway back and that would be Even Nicer. Then he'll call and Baekhyun will tell him to stay at their great-aunt's house and conveniently forget to tell him that there's still a KTX train. He's a good cousin. Great Aunt Joy, as she likes to be called, is a nice lady with too much time and too many cats.
"A double?" Baekhyun replies, in a tone of voice that means, "that's a very nice idea child now go away." As Taehyung sighs, turning away-though not before he sends the drinking straws to the floor one last time, Baekhyun just waving him off-Baekhyun straightens and looks at himself in the mirror.
I'm turning into Kyungsoo, Baekhyun realizes, and the thought is so scary that he makes himself an espresso and downs a couple shots until he feels better, the bitter taste in his mouth reminding him that he's Baekhyun and he doesn't like coffee very much but he likes working at this coffee shop because it's a good summer job between university semesters with free cake before closing and he gets to talk to people, unlike Kyungsoo who works at the museum and is slowly turning into a mummy.
After the post-noon rush, when the people who have time are grabbing coffee after eating far too much food at the overcrowded restaurants, there's always a slump before the post-dinner flood. Right now the café is quiet, just a few scattered tourists here and there and the occasional student bent over textbooks, the rare bird taking summer classes or trying to apply abroad. Baekhyun wonders what they're thinking. He's happy enough restricting his studies to the fall, winter and spring; the summer is short enough as it is, and even then he has club meetings and things to go to.
The automatic doors slide open as he's wiping the counter for something to do, wondering if he should call Jongdae or if Chanyeol is back from backpacking across Europe after his sister's wedding in Switzerland, and doesn't look up from straightening the container of individually-wrapped "for quality assurance purposes" straws until he hears someone asking for two lattes.
In his own voice, or rather, in his own voice if he spoke Korean with a Chinese accent.
Baekhyun looks up and sees his face looking at him. His face looks surprised, stepping back, and the word doppelgänger floats through Baekhyun's head until he happens to glance slightly lower and notices that the him standing across the counter from him has boobs.
They're pretty nice boobs, actually. Baekhyun wonders, idly, what it's like to be Baekhyun with boobs, before he shakes his head. What's going on?
"Who are you?" his voice asks, the vowels strangely inflected, and Baekhyun feels, strangely enough, that his inherent Baekhyun-ness is being attacked.
"I'm Baekhyun," he says, pausing to look at the other him more closely. "Who are you?"
"I'm Bai Xian," the other him, Bai Xian says, and Baekhyun feels a strange ephemeral envy at how liquid her name sounds in her mouth. Because it is a her, he can see that clearly now. Except she looks exactly like him, which is just weird when he thinks about it so he tries not to.
"I feel kind of awkward saying this," Baekhyun says-but he's more curious than awkward, because he's looking at his face on a different person and it still somehow feels like it belongs to him in a kind of subconscious way, the way the city where you live is "your city" and the school you go to is "your school"-"but you have my face." He realizes, just a beat after, that what he said could be interpreted as rude. Oh well.
There's a snort from beside Bai Xian, and Baekhyun realizes that Bai Xian isn't alone, like he'd initially thought. There's a tall guy standing next to her, bright purple hair that makes Baekhyun in his cotton candy blond and pink hair feel slightly defensive.
"I think you're the one who has Bai Xian's face," he says, but he's laughing. Baekhyun feels like he deserves to be poked in the ribs, but Bai Xian does it for him.
"Shut up Zitao," she says, and smirks when he grumbles. Her eyes catch Baekhyun's over the counter, and she winks. I like you.
"Two lattes?" Baekhyun asks, and Bai Xian nods; there's a muffled "oof" as she hands her card across the counter and Baekhyun suspects she's stepping on Zitao's foot.
It's about time for his break anyway, so when he has the lattes ready he looks over where Bai Xian is sitting and Zitao grins and nods.
"Why don't you join us?"
Baekhyun doesn't even think twice about making himself a macchiato and slipping into a seat at their table, even if they are obviously friends out grabbing coffee if not an official couple. Jongdae doesn't call him shameless for nothing.
"So, I'm curious," Baekhyun says, after they've all taken sips of their coffee and have milk foam on their lips. "What's your story?" It feels like he's interviewing himself, a self that grew up in a different country with a different gender. It feels like science fiction, or a great story to tell when he's out drinking with friends.
"Is this going to be a fair trade?" Bai Xian asks, but Baekhyun can tell she's just as curious. Next to her, Zitao rolls his eyes but he's smiling too.
"Of course," Baekhyun says. "I'm Byun Baekhyun, I'm a student at K-ARTS, this is my summer job, I grew up in Bucheon but I kind of like Seoul, and my friends are annoying. You should meet them."
Bai Xian just laughs, and takes another sip of latte.
"I'm Bian Bai Xian," she says, "and I like my name more than yours." She pauses, as though waiting for Baekhyun to disagree, but he actually kind of likes her name better too so he doesn't say anything. She's smirking as she continues, and he knows that she knows. "I'm an exchange student at HUFS, but I come from Shenzen."
"HUFS?" Baekhyun raised his eyebrows. "That's right next to K-ARTS. What are you studying?"
"Korean," Bai Xian says, and Baekhyun nods, of course, "and Swedish." At that, he raises his eyebrows.
"Hey Swedish is cool!" Bai Xian protests; beside her Zitao is laughing into his hand, trying to muffle the sounds but she spares him no mercy and elbows him in the ribs. "My aunt lives in Sweden."
Baekhyun pictures Bai Xian against the backdrop of the latest Swedish movie he'd seen, Let the Right One In because they were supposed to do a comparison between a Scandinavian film and a Hollywood remake, and all he can think of is Bai Xian the child vampire jumping on unsuspecting strangers. It's oddly fitting.
His phone beeps then, break time is up and Jonghyun will scold him if he takes too much time over again.
"Sorry," he says, "I have to go." Bai Xian looks at him, and there's just something about her-she looks like the perfect accomplice. And you never know, Swedish might come in handy. "What's your number?" Baekhyun asks, throwing all caution to the wind. "Your university is so close, you should totally meet my jerks of friends."
He glances over at Zitao, wondering if he'll object, but Zitao looks curious too. "You should come too," Baekhyun says, and Zitao flashes him a quick smile. More friends are always good, and even more friends are better, at least in his books. And the fact that, if Bai Xian looks like the type of person who would fit right into a horror movie, Zitao looks like the type to start crying five minutes in, that doesn't hurt either.
Bai Xian recites her number, Baekhyun typing it into his phone before heading back to work behind the counter, grinning, and even Taehyung's unfortunate return from Cheonan the next morning, sneezing and covered in cat hair, doesn't dampen his spirits.
This is going to be a great year, he thinks to himself, anticipating the mischief ahead.
End Note: The last subway from Cheonan to Seoul is actually at midnight, which is later than the last train, but I've swapped the timings for plot purposes. Please forgive the meddling.