CHINGUX 2014: play me (1/1) for iwantchocopie
Title: play me
Author: cocacola
Recipient: iwantchocopie
Pairing/Focus: baekhyun-centric, baekhyun/chen
Rating: pg13
Warnings: implied sex, language
Length: 3,097 words
Summary: Baekhyun is a terrible friend who should be banned from all electronics.
Jongdae’s in the middle of telling him about the many sights he’s already seen, the different kinds of food he gets to eat and the roommate he really likes, when Baekhyun says it, like he can’t help himself.
“I love you.”
He doesn’t mean for it to come out. Baekhyun’s heart leaps up and lodges itself somewhere in his throat, his eyes widening in shock. This is not how he’d imagined saying that for the first time; in front of his computer screen, during a Skype conversation. Not exactly what he’d consider romantic.
Jongdae’s smile is pixelated, leaning forward. “What?” he shouts at the screen, causing Baekhyun to jump in his seat. “I can barely hear you, the connection’s pretty bad.” The image on Baekhyun’s screen tilts to the right, then to the left, as Jongdae tries to get more comfortable, most likely balancing his laptop on one knee.
“Uh,” Baekhyun stutters, because shit. Is he supposed to say it again? He opts for a no, forcing a grin. “I said I’m glad you’re not here,” he teases, half-heartedly. “It’s so much better without you around.”
Jongdae’s face scrunches, giving him a pissed look. Baekhyun’s chest goes warm and tight.
The screen turns an abrupt black.
You have been disconnected.
-
“My boyfriend’s halfway around the world-”
“He’s in Beijing,” Kyungsoo corrects.
“-I haven’t had sex in five months-”
Chanyeol snorts. “It’s been two weeks.”
“-and now,” Baekhyun emphasizes as he shoots both a glare, daring them to interrupt him again. “I can’t even talk to him properly because of a shitty internet connection and an even shittier laptop. Not to mention he bailed on our Skype date today, said his roommate Yixing is ‘giving him a proper tour of the city’. Who the hell is Yixing?”
“He’s pretty hot,” Chanyeol supplies helpfully. “I’ve seen a couple of pictures.”
Baekhyun’s lips purse, his fingers tightening on his cup. “I know who Yixing is,” he says hotly, thumbs pushing against the lid. He sips from his drink, gnawing on the straw as he surveys the coffee shop, pointedly ignoring the looks he’s receiving from his friends.
Despite it being located in the heart of their campus, there aren’t a lot of customers today. Just them, and what he assumes to be a couple by the way they’re holding hands over the table, sitting in one of the booths near the window. Baekhyun scowls.
Right as he opens his mouth again, ready to continue his tirade, Kyungsoo holds up a hand.
“What’s really bothering you?” he asks.
“Yeah, dude,” Chanyeol chimes in, looking amused. “What’s that poor straw ever done to you?”
Baekhyun blinks, looking down to see a half-chewed straw hanging out of his now empty drink. It looks the way Baekhyun feels: sad and pathetic.
“I told him I loved him and he didn’t hear me,” he mutters after a while.
Kyungsoo exchanges a look with Chanyeol. “And this is a bad thing,” he guesses. “Because…?”
Baekhyun shrugs. He’s definitely not sulking. “It was the first time I said… you know. And he didn’t even hear it.”
Chanyeol’s grin nearly splits his face in half. “That’s so cute,” he coos. “Little Baekhyunnie is in lo-” Seeing Baekhyun’s glare, he doesn’t finish his sentence but instead clears his throat, his chair screeching over the tiles as he scoots backwards. “I’m going to get another drink.”
“Yeah, you do that.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head. “So you’re in love with him,” he says once Chanyeol has left, straight to the point.
Baekhyun’s mouth opens, then closes. He’s been dating Jongdae for two years now, has been friends with him for three. They’d met as freshmen in college, instantly becoming close; an arm around the waist, hand-holding, hips and arms brushing as they stood next to each other. Never seen without the other, it had only taken one drunken hook-up and...
“We should go on a date,” Jongdae had said, the morning after.
Baekhyun had groaned, face pressed into his pillow. “I don’t go on dates,” he’d slurred. “I have sex.”
“I know.” Jongdae’s foot tickled Baekhyun’s thigh. “But we should go on a date.”
Baekhyun could have said no, but he hadn’t. He’d wanted to go on that date. It’d been a pretty damn awesome date.
Everything had sort of fallen into place after that. It’s weird to Baekhyun, how well they fit together. It’s even weirder for Baekhyun to admit as much. Like squids, he remembers Jongin saying. Barnacles, Sehun had amended. Baekhyun had brushed it off, but he’s definitely starting to feel it, the Jongdae-less space beside to him.
Kyungsoo’s still looking at him expectantly, but the smile on his face tells Baekhyun he already knows the answer.
-
Jongin angles the camera in another direction, taking a step backwards to see whether there’s image yet. “Yeah, it’s not working,” he concludes, when the screen remains a solid black.
Baekhyun smiles, tight-lipped. “I know,” he says, trying his best not to kick the kid in the ass. “That’s why I called you. Chanyeol said you’re good with computers, so…”
Jongin rolls his eyes somewhere between ‘Chanyeol’ and ‘good with computers’. “I play LoL with Sehun,” he mumbles. “Did you check the preferences?”
“Of course I did,” Baekhyun says. He’s not that stupid. “The webcam was working until it…” he trails off hesitantly. Jongdae’s laugh bursts through the speakers, staticky. “Shut up, Jongdae.”
Jongin eyes him warily. “Until it what?”
“Until it stopped,” Baekhyun snaps, ignoring Jongdae’s snickers in the background. He should’ve ended their call. “Can you fix it?”
Instead of answering, Jongin folds his arms over his chest as he scrutinizes the computer. Baekhyun shifts his weight from one foot to the other, too impatient to wait as he looks over Jongin’s shoulder. Chanyeol’s going to be home in an hour and if he sees Baekhyun’s managed to fuck up his computer, Baekhyun’s going to be in a lot of trouble.
“Well?” he presses.
Jongin sighs, exasperated. “Can you be quiet for one minute?” he asks, leaning forward to disconnect the camera. He waits a few seconds before plugging it back in. Taking Baekhyun’s mouse, he opens Jongdae’s conversation screen and ends their current call, clicking on video call instead.
Jongdae accepts, grinning back at them. To Baekhyun’s relief, he and Jongin appear in their side of the screen, too. Okay, so that’d been an easy fix. Maybe he should’ve tried unplugging it before calling Jongin in panic.
“Hyung,” Jongin waves his hand at the webcam, “can you see us?”
Jongdae nods. “Yeah,” he says. He flutters his eyelashes. “Look at you, Jonginnie, all grown up and handsome. Has our maknae been dicking you right?”
Jongin makes a face. “Okay, I’m leaving,” he announces as Baekhyun snorts. “Bye, hyung, I’ll text you later. Tell Yixing to come online later so I can kick his ass.”
Baekhyun doesn’t know how Jongin knows Yixing-has Jongdae been talking about him?-and doesn’t care to ask. Instead he beams, thanking him with a quick hug before Baekhyun settles back into his (Chanyeol’s) chair. Twenty minutes wasted on trying to get the damn thing to work again, but finally-
“By the way,” Jongin peeks his head back in. Baekhyun slams his knee against the desk in surprise. “Jerking off in front of Chanyeol hyung’s computer probably isn’t a good idea. Might want to clean the keyboard before he comes home and sees.”
Oh my God. Baekhyun sinks low into his seat, his arms falling limply on the arms of the chair as Jongdae guffaws loudly. Shit, he knew he should’ve checked properly.
Jongdae looks and sounds like he’s about to choke on his own laughter. “You came on the keyboard?”
“Shut up,” Baekhyun groans, craning his neck to see if Jongin’s left yet. He looks back at his computer screen and huffs. “In all fairness, it’s your fault. Who answered the call with three fingers up his ass, huh?”
Jongdae grins. “Yeah, but you weren’t complaining an hour ago.”
And Baekhyun still isn’t. Sure, he might’ve ruined Chanyeol’s keyboard, but it was for a good cause. He’d spent the last two days worrying about how to tell Jongdae he loved him again-Kyungsoo’s suggestion-only for Jongdae to accept the video chat while lying on his bed, naked, legs spread for Baekhyun to see… well, everything. It had only reaffirmed Baekhyun’s love for him. And gotten his dick hard.
(Unfortunately, in his ‘enthusiasm’ he’d somehow managed to break the webcam.)
“…Baekhyun?” Jongdae’s asking. Baekhyun’s head snaps up, realizing he’d zoned out.
“Sorry,” he apologizes. “Did you say something?”
“I said ‘I miss you’, asshole,” Jongdae laughs. “Got something else on your mind?”
Baekhyun answers is honest, “Just you,” and Jongdae’s look of amusement quickly grows into something more adoring. Even though the image quality is blurry, it has Baekhyun swallowing thickly. “I miss you too,” he admits softly. “Class is not the same without you.”
“It’s only for one semester,” Jongdae says. The screen flickers, and his image freezes momentarily. “-be back before you know it.”
“I know,” Baekhyun says, his voice taking on a whiny tone. He sits forward and then lets his head loll into his arms on the desk with a noise of frustration. “But I want you to come home. I want to talk to you, touch you, tell you that I…”
Jongdae peers into his camera curiously. “Tell me what?”
Baekhyun lifts his head enough to see Jongdae’s face, suddenly tongue-tied. “That I…” he takes a deep breath. Okay, it’s now or never, Baekhyun. “That I lo-”
You have been disconnected.
kim jongdae 😼 is offline.
“-ve you?” Baekhyun slumps in his seat. “Oh, come on!”
His phone buzzes. Baekhyun takes it out of his pocket to see a new LINE message from Jongdae.
sorry, it says. internet cut and yixing here, i g2g 😢 what were u saying?
Baekhyun groans. Of course. its not important, he messages back. ttyl?
ok!! 😘
-
“No way,” says Kyungsoo, when Baekhyun asks him to borrow his laptop. “I know what you did to Chanyeol’s.”
Baekhyun curses inwardly. He knew he’d forgotten to do something, like cleaning that up. But he’s on a mission and he needs a computer to fulfill it; he’s going to tell Jongdae he loves him and, this time, Jongdae’s going to hear him, damn it.
Sidling up to his friend, Baekhyun smiles sweetly. “Please? I want to talk to my boyfriend face-to-face,” he whines, adding, “Just talk,” when he sees Kyungsoo’s wary look.
“Library?” Kyungsoo offers. At seeing Baekhyun’s confusion, he clarifies drily, “I hear they use computers there.”
Baekhyun perks up. “You’re a genius,” he says, ruffling Kyungsoo’s hair affectionately, grinning when his hand is swatted away. “…So where’s the library?”
Fifteen minutes later Baekhyun finds himself sitting in front of a computer in a library that smells worse than his grandmother’s cabin up on the mountains (like, old and stuff), accepting Jongdae’s video call. Baekhyun’s wearing the ugliest headset he’s ever seen, and he’s halfway through his ‘I love you’ when Jongdae says, “Hey. Is your microphone on? I can’t hear you.”
Apparently, third time’s not the charm. Because yes, it’s on, but no, it doesn’t work. Turns out the library’s headsets aren’t just ugly; they’re cheap, too. None of them work.
what kind of bullshit, he types in his and Jongdae’s IM window. why do people go to the library if nothing works?
“Probably to study,” Jongdae says. At least his microphone works. “Not to video call their boyfriend.”
Baekhyun makes a face at the camera. lame, he answers. their boyfriend obviously isn’t as hot as mine. He bats his lashes.
Jongdae gives Baekhyun a cheeky grin. “Byun Baekhyun, are you hitting on me? In the library?”
only if it’s working, Baekhyun replies, adding a winking emote. Jongdae responds by waggling his eyebrows and lifting up his shirt, so Baekhyun quickly covers the screen while stifling a laugh. don’t do that!! i’m in public, asshole.
This is nice, the easy banter between them. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are great, but they’re not Jongdae, and Baekhyun’s not sure how he missed it before, why it took Jongdae leaving on a foreign exchange student program for Baekhyun to realize he’s in love with him.
Jongdae shakes his head and just laughs. When an unfamiliar voice calls out to him, he turns to look behind him. “Oh, Yixing’s here, I have to go. We’re going out to eat.”
Baekhyun hits enter with as much force he can muster, i hope you have a shitty time and will be on the next plane to me 😄
Jongdae flips him off. Baekhyun never tells him it’s not a joke.
-
Baekhyun helps himself to Sehun’s half-finished milk tea in the kitchen while Sehun finishes up his game, tongue hanging out of his mouth in concentration.
“Still haven’t told him?” Sehun asks, shooting a zombie until its brains splatter across the television screen.
Baekhyun grimaces, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. “I’m trying,” he says. “It’s like the universe is against me telling my boyfriend I love him. I didn’t think it’d be this hard.” He pauses. “Wait, how do you even know about this?”
“Chanyeol-hyung,” Sehun replies with a shrug. “If you’re asking me-”
“I was actually only asking to use your computer,” Baekhyun says, pointing towards the laptop.
Sehun ignores him. “I think you’re pushing it,” he says. “That sort of thing should come natural, you know?” And then, without warning, he yells, “Jongin!” right near Baekhyun’s ear.
“What?” comes Jongin’s reply. Baekhyun didn’t even know he was home.
Sehun mouths ‘watch this’. “I love you,” he calls out, in what Baekhyun thinks might be his cutest voice. It’s slightly terrifying.
Jongin’s reply is automatic. “What the hell do you want?”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes when Sehun sends him a smug smile. “It’s not the same,” he says, because it isn’t. Somehow. He picks at the seam of his jeans, frowning. “There’s nothing wrong with telling your boyfriend you love him.”
“For the right reasons.”
Baekhyun’s brows furrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Okay, so maybe he’s been kind of hell-bent on telling Jongdae he loves him, but that’s only because he wants him to know. The first time had been thoughtless, the second time had been poorly timed, the third time had been a disaster. The fourth time should be a winner, right?
Game over flashes on the screen in front of Baekhyun. Sehun puts down the console. “Look, hyung,” he says. “No one in China is going to replace you. Jongdae-hyung’s going to come home soon and he’ll still think you’re awesome.”
Oh. That’s nice of Sehun. Baekhyun gives him a small smile. Sometimes the kid is alright.
But. “Replace me?” he frowns. “Why would I be worried about someone replacing me? I’m not worried. At all. I mean, why should I be?”
If Baekhyun was perfectly honest with himself, he would’ve realized how defensive he sounds. But being ‘perfectly honest with himself’ has never been Baekhyun’s forte, so it takes him at least a couple of seconds of wondering why Sehun’s staring at him for Baekhyun to understand.
“You don’t believe me,” he accuses.
Sehun says, “I believe you believe you,” as if that helps Baekhyun at all. It just irritates him even more. “You’re a little selfish and a lot oblivious, hyung. Emotionally stunted.”
Baekhyun gapes at him, the little brat- “I’m not,” he insists. “Just because Jongdae’s been spending most of his time with his roommate and all of my friends somehow seem to like this guy doesn’t mean I’m…”
Whatever else he wanted to say dies somewhere in his throat when he catches sight of the knowing smile on Sehun’s face, and suddenly it hits him. “Oh,” Baekhyun says, intelligently. He leans forward, barely managing to catch himself from tipping off the sofa, and buries his head into his arms with a groan.
“Yeah, Yixing’s pretty hot,” says Sehun offhandedly, starting up another game. Baekhyun kicks him.
-
Baekhyun’s in the middle of telling him about the many different ways technology can go suck his dick, making himself comfortable on his bed with his (Sehun’s) laptop in his lap, when Jongdae says it, sporting a cocksure grin.
“I love you.”
Baekhyun just stares at him. “What?”
Jongdae doesn’t hesitate. “I love you,” he repeats, and despite the static in their connection, the words ring clear, right into Baekhyun’s ears. “Can you not hear me? I guess I can restart. God, we really need to find a better way to communicate.”
“Wait,” Baekhyun says quickly, because what. “This isn’t fair.” Did Jongdae just steal his thunder?
Jongdae looks terribly confused. It’d be cute if Baekhyun wasn’t mad at him. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. I’ve been trying to tell you I love you for days now, what the hell? Did Chanyeol tell you? I bet he told you, that dick-”
“Chanyeol didn’t tell me anything,” Jongdae says, and now he’s laughing. “Kyungsoo, on the other hand…”
Baekhyun slumps back against the headboard. “The one person I thought I could trust.” It’s not Kyungsoo’s betrayal that has him swallowing against the dryness in his throat, though.
He scratches at the side of his face, biting at his thumb in habit. “Did you mean it?”
Jongdae looks like he’s not sure what ‘it’ is supposed to be, but then his lips form an ‘o’ in understanding. “Yeah,” his voice is soft, “of course I did. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”
Baekhyun really wishes he could kiss Jongdae right now. The relief he feels must be clear in the way he tries not to smile too wide, his mouth quirking into a crooked grin. “I love you, too.”
“I know,” Jongdae says, looking entirely too smug. Baekhyun’s entire face wrinkles, so he laughs. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I tried! But there was the internet connection, and the webcam, and the headset, and Yixing, and-”
Jongdae frowns at him. “Yixing?”
Oops. “I might or might not have been a little,” Baekhyun pinches his index and thumb together, “just a teensy bit, jealous of your hot roommate. But I’m over it. Totally.”
Jongdae does not look convinced, but he does look amused. “You’re a dumbass,” he says, albeit fondly. “Good thing I love dumbasses.”
“Yeah?” Baekhyun’s brow raises, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “How much?”
(Sehun’s laptop is returned with a note attached: sorry, it reads. i cleaned it this time 😄)
Author: cocacola
Recipient: iwantchocopie
Pairing/Focus: baekhyun-centric, baekhyun/chen
Rating: pg13
Warnings: implied sex, language
Length: 3,097 words
Summary: Baekhyun is a terrible friend who should be banned from all electronics.
Jongdae’s in the middle of telling him about the many sights he’s already seen, the different kinds of food he gets to eat and the roommate he really likes, when Baekhyun says it, like he can’t help himself.
“I love you.”
He doesn’t mean for it to come out. Baekhyun’s heart leaps up and lodges itself somewhere in his throat, his eyes widening in shock. This is not how he’d imagined saying that for the first time; in front of his computer screen, during a Skype conversation. Not exactly what he’d consider romantic.
Jongdae’s smile is pixelated, leaning forward. “What?” he shouts at the screen, causing Baekhyun to jump in his seat. “I can barely hear you, the connection’s pretty bad.” The image on Baekhyun’s screen tilts to the right, then to the left, as Jongdae tries to get more comfortable, most likely balancing his laptop on one knee.
“Uh,” Baekhyun stutters, because shit. Is he supposed to say it again? He opts for a no, forcing a grin. “I said I’m glad you’re not here,” he teases, half-heartedly. “It’s so much better without you around.”
Jongdae’s face scrunches, giving him a pissed look. Baekhyun’s chest goes warm and tight.
The screen turns an abrupt black.
You have been disconnected.
-
“My boyfriend’s halfway around the world-”
“He’s in Beijing,” Kyungsoo corrects.
“-I haven’t had sex in five months-”
Chanyeol snorts. “It’s been two weeks.”
“-and now,” Baekhyun emphasizes as he shoots both a glare, daring them to interrupt him again. “I can’t even talk to him properly because of a shitty internet connection and an even shittier laptop. Not to mention he bailed on our Skype date today, said his roommate Yixing is ‘giving him a proper tour of the city’. Who the hell is Yixing?”
“He’s pretty hot,” Chanyeol supplies helpfully. “I’ve seen a couple of pictures.”
Baekhyun’s lips purse, his fingers tightening on his cup. “I know who Yixing is,” he says hotly, thumbs pushing against the lid. He sips from his drink, gnawing on the straw as he surveys the coffee shop, pointedly ignoring the looks he’s receiving from his friends.
Despite it being located in the heart of their campus, there aren’t a lot of customers today. Just them, and what he assumes to be a couple by the way they’re holding hands over the table, sitting in one of the booths near the window. Baekhyun scowls.
Right as he opens his mouth again, ready to continue his tirade, Kyungsoo holds up a hand.
“What’s really bothering you?” he asks.
“Yeah, dude,” Chanyeol chimes in, looking amused. “What’s that poor straw ever done to you?”
Baekhyun blinks, looking down to see a half-chewed straw hanging out of his now empty drink. It looks the way Baekhyun feels: sad and pathetic.
“I told him I loved him and he didn’t hear me,” he mutters after a while.
Kyungsoo exchanges a look with Chanyeol. “And this is a bad thing,” he guesses. “Because…?”
Baekhyun shrugs. He’s definitely not sulking. “It was the first time I said… you know. And he didn’t even hear it.”
Chanyeol’s grin nearly splits his face in half. “That’s so cute,” he coos. “Little Baekhyunnie is in lo-” Seeing Baekhyun’s glare, he doesn’t finish his sentence but instead clears his throat, his chair screeching over the tiles as he scoots backwards. “I’m going to get another drink.”
“Yeah, you do that.”
Kyungsoo shakes his head. “So you’re in love with him,” he says once Chanyeol has left, straight to the point.
Baekhyun’s mouth opens, then closes. He’s been dating Jongdae for two years now, has been friends with him for three. They’d met as freshmen in college, instantly becoming close; an arm around the waist, hand-holding, hips and arms brushing as they stood next to each other. Never seen without the other, it had only taken one drunken hook-up and...
“We should go on a date,” Jongdae had said, the morning after.
Baekhyun had groaned, face pressed into his pillow. “I don’t go on dates,” he’d slurred. “I have sex.”
“I know.” Jongdae’s foot tickled Baekhyun’s thigh. “But we should go on a date.”
Baekhyun could have said no, but he hadn’t. He’d wanted to go on that date. It’d been a pretty damn awesome date.
Everything had sort of fallen into place after that. It’s weird to Baekhyun, how well they fit together. It’s even weirder for Baekhyun to admit as much. Like squids, he remembers Jongin saying. Barnacles, Sehun had amended. Baekhyun had brushed it off, but he’s definitely starting to feel it, the Jongdae-less space beside to him.
Kyungsoo’s still looking at him expectantly, but the smile on his face tells Baekhyun he already knows the answer.
-
Jongin angles the camera in another direction, taking a step backwards to see whether there’s image yet. “Yeah, it’s not working,” he concludes, when the screen remains a solid black.
Baekhyun smiles, tight-lipped. “I know,” he says, trying his best not to kick the kid in the ass. “That’s why I called you. Chanyeol said you’re good with computers, so…”
Jongin rolls his eyes somewhere between ‘Chanyeol’ and ‘good with computers’. “I play LoL with Sehun,” he mumbles. “Did you check the preferences?”
“Of course I did,” Baekhyun says. He’s not that stupid. “The webcam was working until it…” he trails off hesitantly. Jongdae’s laugh bursts through the speakers, staticky. “Shut up, Jongdae.”
Jongin eyes him warily. “Until it what?”
“Until it stopped,” Baekhyun snaps, ignoring Jongdae’s snickers in the background. He should’ve ended their call. “Can you fix it?”
Instead of answering, Jongin folds his arms over his chest as he scrutinizes the computer. Baekhyun shifts his weight from one foot to the other, too impatient to wait as he looks over Jongin’s shoulder. Chanyeol’s going to be home in an hour and if he sees Baekhyun’s managed to fuck up his computer, Baekhyun’s going to be in a lot of trouble.
“Well?” he presses.
Jongin sighs, exasperated. “Can you be quiet for one minute?” he asks, leaning forward to disconnect the camera. He waits a few seconds before plugging it back in. Taking Baekhyun’s mouse, he opens Jongdae’s conversation screen and ends their current call, clicking on video call instead.
Jongdae accepts, grinning back at them. To Baekhyun’s relief, he and Jongin appear in their side of the screen, too. Okay, so that’d been an easy fix. Maybe he should’ve tried unplugging it before calling Jongin in panic.
“Hyung,” Jongin waves his hand at the webcam, “can you see us?”
Jongdae nods. “Yeah,” he says. He flutters his eyelashes. “Look at you, Jonginnie, all grown up and handsome. Has our maknae been dicking you right?”
Jongin makes a face. “Okay, I’m leaving,” he announces as Baekhyun snorts. “Bye, hyung, I’ll text you later. Tell Yixing to come online later so I can kick his ass.”
Baekhyun doesn’t know how Jongin knows Yixing-has Jongdae been talking about him?-and doesn’t care to ask. Instead he beams, thanking him with a quick hug before Baekhyun settles back into his (Chanyeol’s) chair. Twenty minutes wasted on trying to get the damn thing to work again, but finally-
“By the way,” Jongin peeks his head back in. Baekhyun slams his knee against the desk in surprise. “Jerking off in front of Chanyeol hyung’s computer probably isn’t a good idea. Might want to clean the keyboard before he comes home and sees.”
Oh my God. Baekhyun sinks low into his seat, his arms falling limply on the arms of the chair as Jongdae guffaws loudly. Shit, he knew he should’ve checked properly.
Jongdae looks and sounds like he’s about to choke on his own laughter. “You came on the keyboard?”
“Shut up,” Baekhyun groans, craning his neck to see if Jongin’s left yet. He looks back at his computer screen and huffs. “In all fairness, it’s your fault. Who answered the call with three fingers up his ass, huh?”
Jongdae grins. “Yeah, but you weren’t complaining an hour ago.”
And Baekhyun still isn’t. Sure, he might’ve ruined Chanyeol’s keyboard, but it was for a good cause. He’d spent the last two days worrying about how to tell Jongdae he loved him again-Kyungsoo’s suggestion-only for Jongdae to accept the video chat while lying on his bed, naked, legs spread for Baekhyun to see… well, everything. It had only reaffirmed Baekhyun’s love for him. And gotten his dick hard.
(Unfortunately, in his ‘enthusiasm’ he’d somehow managed to break the webcam.)
“…Baekhyun?” Jongdae’s asking. Baekhyun’s head snaps up, realizing he’d zoned out.
“Sorry,” he apologizes. “Did you say something?”
“I said ‘I miss you’, asshole,” Jongdae laughs. “Got something else on your mind?”
Baekhyun answers is honest, “Just you,” and Jongdae’s look of amusement quickly grows into something more adoring. Even though the image quality is blurry, it has Baekhyun swallowing thickly. “I miss you too,” he admits softly. “Class is not the same without you.”
“It’s only for one semester,” Jongdae says. The screen flickers, and his image freezes momentarily. “-be back before you know it.”
“I know,” Baekhyun says, his voice taking on a whiny tone. He sits forward and then lets his head loll into his arms on the desk with a noise of frustration. “But I want you to come home. I want to talk to you, touch you, tell you that I…”
Jongdae peers into his camera curiously. “Tell me what?”
Baekhyun lifts his head enough to see Jongdae’s face, suddenly tongue-tied. “That I…” he takes a deep breath. Okay, it’s now or never, Baekhyun. “That I lo-”
You have been disconnected.
kim jongdae 😼 is offline.
“-ve you?” Baekhyun slumps in his seat. “Oh, come on!”
His phone buzzes. Baekhyun takes it out of his pocket to see a new LINE message from Jongdae.
sorry, it says. internet cut and yixing here, i g2g 😢 what were u saying?
Baekhyun groans. Of course. its not important, he messages back. ttyl?
ok!! 😘
-
“No way,” says Kyungsoo, when Baekhyun asks him to borrow his laptop. “I know what you did to Chanyeol’s.”
Baekhyun curses inwardly. He knew he’d forgotten to do something, like cleaning that up. But he’s on a mission and he needs a computer to fulfill it; he’s going to tell Jongdae he loves him and, this time, Jongdae’s going to hear him, damn it.
Sidling up to his friend, Baekhyun smiles sweetly. “Please? I want to talk to my boyfriend face-to-face,” he whines, adding, “Just talk,” when he sees Kyungsoo’s wary look.
“Library?” Kyungsoo offers. At seeing Baekhyun’s confusion, he clarifies drily, “I hear they use computers there.”
Baekhyun perks up. “You’re a genius,” he says, ruffling Kyungsoo’s hair affectionately, grinning when his hand is swatted away. “…So where’s the library?”
Fifteen minutes later Baekhyun finds himself sitting in front of a computer in a library that smells worse than his grandmother’s cabin up on the mountains (like, old and stuff), accepting Jongdae’s video call. Baekhyun’s wearing the ugliest headset he’s ever seen, and he’s halfway through his ‘I love you’ when Jongdae says, “Hey. Is your microphone on? I can’t hear you.”
Apparently, third time’s not the charm. Because yes, it’s on, but no, it doesn’t work. Turns out the library’s headsets aren’t just ugly; they’re cheap, too. None of them work.
what kind of bullshit, he types in his and Jongdae’s IM window. why do people go to the library if nothing works?
“Probably to study,” Jongdae says. At least his microphone works. “Not to video call their boyfriend.”
Baekhyun makes a face at the camera. lame, he answers. their boyfriend obviously isn’t as hot as mine. He bats his lashes.
Jongdae gives Baekhyun a cheeky grin. “Byun Baekhyun, are you hitting on me? In the library?”
only if it’s working, Baekhyun replies, adding a winking emote. Jongdae responds by waggling his eyebrows and lifting up his shirt, so Baekhyun quickly covers the screen while stifling a laugh. don’t do that!! i’m in public, asshole.
This is nice, the easy banter between them. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are great, but they’re not Jongdae, and Baekhyun’s not sure how he missed it before, why it took Jongdae leaving on a foreign exchange student program for Baekhyun to realize he’s in love with him.
Jongdae shakes his head and just laughs. When an unfamiliar voice calls out to him, he turns to look behind him. “Oh, Yixing’s here, I have to go. We’re going out to eat.”
Baekhyun hits enter with as much force he can muster, i hope you have a shitty time and will be on the next plane to me 😄
Jongdae flips him off. Baekhyun never tells him it’s not a joke.
-
Baekhyun helps himself to Sehun’s half-finished milk tea in the kitchen while Sehun finishes up his game, tongue hanging out of his mouth in concentration.
“Still haven’t told him?” Sehun asks, shooting a zombie until its brains splatter across the television screen.
Baekhyun grimaces, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. “I’m trying,” he says. “It’s like the universe is against me telling my boyfriend I love him. I didn’t think it’d be this hard.” He pauses. “Wait, how do you even know about this?”
“Chanyeol-hyung,” Sehun replies with a shrug. “If you’re asking me-”
“I was actually only asking to use your computer,” Baekhyun says, pointing towards the laptop.
Sehun ignores him. “I think you’re pushing it,” he says. “That sort of thing should come natural, you know?” And then, without warning, he yells, “Jongin!” right near Baekhyun’s ear.
“What?” comes Jongin’s reply. Baekhyun didn’t even know he was home.
Sehun mouths ‘watch this’. “I love you,” he calls out, in what Baekhyun thinks might be his cutest voice. It’s slightly terrifying.
Jongin’s reply is automatic. “What the hell do you want?”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes when Sehun sends him a smug smile. “It’s not the same,” he says, because it isn’t. Somehow. He picks at the seam of his jeans, frowning. “There’s nothing wrong with telling your boyfriend you love him.”
“For the right reasons.”
Baekhyun’s brows furrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Okay, so maybe he’s been kind of hell-bent on telling Jongdae he loves him, but that’s only because he wants him to know. The first time had been thoughtless, the second time had been poorly timed, the third time had been a disaster. The fourth time should be a winner, right?
Game over flashes on the screen in front of Baekhyun. Sehun puts down the console. “Look, hyung,” he says. “No one in China is going to replace you. Jongdae-hyung’s going to come home soon and he’ll still think you’re awesome.”
Oh. That’s nice of Sehun. Baekhyun gives him a small smile. Sometimes the kid is alright.
But. “Replace me?” he frowns. “Why would I be worried about someone replacing me? I’m not worried. At all. I mean, why should I be?”
If Baekhyun was perfectly honest with himself, he would’ve realized how defensive he sounds. But being ‘perfectly honest with himself’ has never been Baekhyun’s forte, so it takes him at least a couple of seconds of wondering why Sehun’s staring at him for Baekhyun to understand.
“You don’t believe me,” he accuses.
Sehun says, “I believe you believe you,” as if that helps Baekhyun at all. It just irritates him even more. “You’re a little selfish and a lot oblivious, hyung. Emotionally stunted.”
Baekhyun gapes at him, the little brat- “I’m not,” he insists. “Just because Jongdae’s been spending most of his time with his roommate and all of my friends somehow seem to like this guy doesn’t mean I’m…”
Whatever else he wanted to say dies somewhere in his throat when he catches sight of the knowing smile on Sehun’s face, and suddenly it hits him. “Oh,” Baekhyun says, intelligently. He leans forward, barely managing to catch himself from tipping off the sofa, and buries his head into his arms with a groan.
“Yeah, Yixing’s pretty hot,” says Sehun offhandedly, starting up another game. Baekhyun kicks him.
-
Baekhyun’s in the middle of telling him about the many different ways technology can go suck his dick, making himself comfortable on his bed with his (Sehun’s) laptop in his lap, when Jongdae says it, sporting a cocksure grin.
“I love you.”
Baekhyun just stares at him. “What?”
Jongdae doesn’t hesitate. “I love you,” he repeats, and despite the static in their connection, the words ring clear, right into Baekhyun’s ears. “Can you not hear me? I guess I can restart. God, we really need to find a better way to communicate.”
“Wait,” Baekhyun says quickly, because what. “This isn’t fair.” Did Jongdae just steal his thunder?
Jongdae looks terribly confused. It’d be cute if Baekhyun wasn’t mad at him. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. I’ve been trying to tell you I love you for days now, what the hell? Did Chanyeol tell you? I bet he told you, that dick-”
“Chanyeol didn’t tell me anything,” Jongdae says, and now he’s laughing. “Kyungsoo, on the other hand…”
Baekhyun slumps back against the headboard. “The one person I thought I could trust.” It’s not Kyungsoo’s betrayal that has him swallowing against the dryness in his throat, though.
He scratches at the side of his face, biting at his thumb in habit. “Did you mean it?”
Jongdae looks like he’s not sure what ‘it’ is supposed to be, but then his lips form an ‘o’ in understanding. “Yeah,” his voice is soft, “of course I did. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”
Baekhyun really wishes he could kiss Jongdae right now. The relief he feels must be clear in the way he tries not to smile too wide, his mouth quirking into a crooked grin. “I love you, too.”
“I know,” Jongdae says, looking entirely too smug. Baekhyun’s entire face wrinkles, so he laughs. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I tried! But there was the internet connection, and the webcam, and the headset, and Yixing, and-”
Jongdae frowns at him. “Yixing?”
Oops. “I might or might not have been a little,” Baekhyun pinches his index and thumb together, “just a teensy bit, jealous of your hot roommate. But I’m over it. Totally.”
Jongdae does not look convinced, but he does look amused. “You’re a dumbass,” he says, albeit fondly. “Good thing I love dumbasses.”
“Yeah?” Baekhyun’s brow raises, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “How much?”
(Sehun’s laptop is returned with a note attached: sorry, it reads. i cleaned it this time 😄)