Only If You Want
Only If You Want
Pairing: Chanyeol/Baekhyun
Rating: Pg
Word Count: 15k
Summary: Baekhyun accidentally kisses his best friend's crush.
A/n: I wrote this for Baeconandeggs2018. Hope you guys enjoy if you haven't read it off aff or ao3 yet lol
Being sexiled from his own dorm was really annoying, but Baekhyun didn’t really have any other choice but to drag himself over to the floor lounge and study there. Who even had time to have sex when the semester was nearing an end and finals were beginning the week after? It was just one of the things that Baekhyun didn’t fully understand, but maybe it was because he was one of those kids who were solely intent on just studying and not so much on having an actual love life.
He prided himself in being a decent student, but like others, he was also prone to just wandering the internet and making fake shopping lists of things he didn’t have money to actually buy. His financial economics homework was mind-numbing and aside from jamming lines of commands into the R-program, his brain needed an actual break.
As he was watching his third movie review video on Youtube, his eyes wandered upwards and noticed a text sent to him by Kyungsoo
[ Kyungsoo ] : Hey! Were you able to finish problem 4 of the homework??
Pausing his video, Baekhyun looked over the paper piles on his left before he responded.
[ Baekhyun ] : Yeah. It’s pretty easy. What part did you need help on?
[ Kyungsoo ]I just don’t get the problem at all.
[ Baekhyun ] : Just solve for the Beta for portfolio A and B. It’s basically just a linear line used as an indicator to predict future returns of investments. Just remember that the larger the Beta, the riskier the portfolio.
[ Kyungsoo ] : ....
[ Kyungsoo ] : So how do you do that, again?
Sighing, Baekhyun pulled out his phone and took a photo of his work (not that there was much to show). After sending the image over, he tried to explain the problem again.
[ Baekhyun] : Once you get it, you’ll be set. Like I said, it’s not that hard, but you should probably learn the concept behind it. I think our TA has notes on his website about it.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Alright. Thanks!
[ Baekhyun ] : Sure! Just let me know if you need anything else.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Kk
As he was beginning to close their conversation, he received another text from his friend.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Actually, what’re you doing right now? Do you wanna come by the 24 hour lounge near the library and study with me?
The study area wasn’t too far from where Baekhyun was. It was a little over five to seven minutes to walk there. Normally, he’d decline, but being in the dorm lounge was uncomfortable and he was still bitter about being sexiled by his roommate, so staying there really didn’t do anything but make him slightly irritated.
Granted, it sounded like Kyungsoo hadn’t been attending lecture recently to actually understand the homework, which was the easiest one thus far, but studying with him and being around someone else seemed like a much better alternative compared to watching cat videos alone.
Baekhyun: Yeah, sure. I don’t mind. Just tell me where you’re sitting. I’ll be there in about 10.
Kyungsoo: Cool! See you in a few.
-
-
The 24-hour study hall was exactly like Baekhyun thought it’d look--crowded. There were a few open seats in between certains groups, mostly because it seemed like common courtesy to sit at least one seat away from other people. It only made Baekhyun’s job of trying to spot Kyungsoo in the sea of dark-haired students harder.
Just as he was about to text the latter to ask for his location, he heard a faint voice amongst the other students’ voices, calling out his name. Looking up, he saw two flailing arms in the air, which was enough to let him know that it was Kyungsoo.
After walking past other students sitting on the same long study table, he set his things next to Kyungsoo’s bag and sat down in the seat that had been saved for him.
“Sorry for asking you to come here so late. Were you at the dorms?” Kyungsoo asked, moving some of his papers over to his side in order to make room.
“Uh, I was in the lounge area. Roommate kicked me out,” Baekhyun answered.
“Did Heechul give you the 10-minute warning, though?”
“Got it right after I got out of my discussion section.”
“Mmm… Well, you’re better off here with me, anyways,” Kyungsoo said, smiling. Then, his facial expression changed as he looked to the man sitting across from him and placed a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Oh! By the way, this is my friend, Chanyeol. I met him in my upper division writing workshop.”
Turning to the man who was holding out his hand confidently out for him to accept, Baekhyun smiled and exchanged a quick shake. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Baekhyun.”
The grin on Chanyeol’s face was kind of tantalizing, taking Baekhyun aback, but he didn’t let on about those feelings. “Baekhyun,” he said, reiterating the latter’s name as if to recall. “I feel like I’ve met you before.”
Shrugging, Baekhyun pulled away and settled into his seat. “Well, it is a small world, so who knows. Maybe.”
“That’s impossible,” Kyungsoo commented. “All Baekhyun does is stay cooped up somewhere, studying. That or watching basketball.”
Chanyeol raised his brows. “You like basketball?”
“Depends. I watch home games, sometimes,” Baekhyun answered. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Basketball was just one of his more preferred pastime sports, but the tidbit seemed to perk the latter’s interest anyways. “You?”
“I go to the games pretty often, but the after party is where it’s at.”
“Ah…” Baekhyun smiled. Being that their university was ranked within the top five colleges for basketball meant that it was a big thing. And, logically, the bigger the team, the bigger the parties to hype (and celebrate) said team. “Haven’t really been to any of those.”
“Really?” Chanyeol looked as if he didn’t believe him and Baekhyun wondered why that was. “That’s too bad. They’re really fun. But anyways, I’ll stop bothering you about basketball and let you two get to work on your finance homework.”
-
-
The thing with Kyungsoo introducing him to Chanyeol was that Baekhyun already knew him. Chanyeol was right and it was really easy to read it off his face the second he recognized him. Groaning, Baekhyun set his head down on his desk and stayed that way for a few minutes. How the hell was he supposed to know that the random stranger he decided to make out with months ago (and then ditch in the crowd) would somehow end up being introduced to him by his best friend?
He was embarrassed--mostly because he was honestly not himself that night at all and, normally, he’d never even think about dancing against someone he didn’t know before consequently just--
There was a click before the door to his right opened. A few seconds passed before he heard the familiar sound of his roommate’s voice. “What’s up with you?”
Heechul wasn’t a nosy roommate, but he occasionally liked to hear about Baekhyun’s business. It wasn’t that big of a deal since Baekhyun would actually rant to him about his courses and anything that was bothering him at the time. It kinda helped how he wasn’t really part of his friend circle, so he was a safe person to spill the beans to and then later trust that those beans wouldn’t get spilled out to other people.
Baekhyun raised his head off his desk and spun his chair around to face his curious roommate as he walked through their dorm room, setting his things on his side. “Have you ever made out with someone?” he blurted out (blatantly). “I mean, like… Someone you didn’t even know.”
Rolling his eyes, Heechul climbed on his bed, tired despite having only attended one class that day. “Isn’t that what college is about? Hooking up to forget how stressed you are? Why? Did you kiss someone, Byun Baekhyun?”
“No-- Well. Yes, but just one time,” Baekhyun said quickly as if he really had to defend his reasons. “It doesn’t even matter because I regret the whole thing. I’m actually really embarrassed because I thought I’d never see the guy again and then… Kyungsoo introduces us.”
Intrigued, Heechul grabbed a pillow and hugged it as he lied down on his front. He quirked his lips and then gave Baekhyun a playful smile. “And then…?”
“And then… I don’t know.”
“Did he recognize you?” Heechul asked.
“I’m not sure, but I think he might’ve.” Baekhyun threw his head back and let out an exasperated groan. “I shouldn’t care, but I do. That was just… really embarrassing. It wasn’t like me. If I wasn’t so drunk and...and…”
Heartbroken? Recently broken up with?
Drinking wasn’t usually one of Baekhyun’s favorite activities, and it wasn’t normal for him to even go to a college party thrown by one of the frats, but the opportunity came up right after Jongin had broken up with him and he really just wanted to forget about him… So then what? He found a rebound guy for the night? It sounded kind of bad, but at the same time, dancing against a (hot) guy and not being judged for it seemed like a good idea to him then.
But emphasis on then.
If Baekhyun remembered correctly (his memory was a bit of a haze), he--Chanyeol--did ask for his name and number, but Jongdae, the friend who had brought him there in the first place, found him before making an excuse about how they had to go. It didn’t give any of them time to exchange info, but none of that mattered since they literally shook hands the other night and stared into each other’s eyes.
Ngh.
“I just needed to forget about Jongin. That’s all. That’s all I wanted. Now I feel like I have to apologize to this poor guy for being…weird at a dumb frat party.”
“Or just don’t mention it. Pretend it never happened,” Heechul suggested as he shrugged his shoulders. It was a simple and straight solution to him. “He’s more like Kyungsoo’s friend, right?”
Were they really friends? Baekhyun remembered him mentioning they were partners for a writing class, but the word “friends” seemed like it was a stretch. Then again, who was he to judge when Kyungsoo seemed like he was completely and utterly comfortable with the guy?
“Sure. I mean, I guess,” Baekhyun said, finally answering after he stalled into silence for a few seconds.
“Then you won’t really have to see him. He’s not your problem, anyways.”
“Yeah… You’re right. I have other things to worry about,” Baekhyun mumbled as he turned back towards his desk, eyeing the practice exams he had neatly splayed over the surface. His entire station looked like a disheveled mess, but he was nearly ready to take a break anyhow. Fixing it up then would’ve been a waste of time. “I think I’ll walk down to the cafe on campus and grab something to eat. Do you want anything?”
Shaking his head, Heechul raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up. “I’m good. Thanks for asking.”
“Alright then.” Baekhyun pushed himself away from the desk and stood up, making sure to grab his lanyard and dorm key before walking towards the door. As he was turning the handle, he turned his head back momentarily and called out to Heechul. “By the way, thanks for listening.”
All he received as a quick “mhm”, but it was a typical response from Heechul, so Baekhyun didn’t give it too much thought. In fact, he was right. Pretending like that night didn’t happen was his best option.
-
-
The walk down to the cafe took about ten minutes since Baekhyun’s dorm was the farthest building from any type of student store that the university had to offer. Maybe if he was a freshman he would’ve gotten one of the newer dorms closer to everything from shops to lecture halls, but the juniors were always assigned to one out of the three buildings. Baekhyun just so happen to be in the one building that was the most isolated.
Letting himself in, Baekhyun held the door open for the person walking in behind him before getting in line and wondering if he wanted anything to go with his macchiato. Caffeine always stifled his hunger and that would really save him some money, but at the same time, his eyes couldn’t help but land on the bagels on display.
After he ordered, he walked over to the side and went on his phone, hoping to pass the time quickly by scrolling through his feed on Facebook. There weren’t a lot of other people waiting for their drinks, so he figured that he wouldn’t have to wait as long.
It was the sound of his name being called that jerked his attention away from his phone. Turning around, Baekhyun immediately spotted Kyungsoo’s familiar face, waving at him from a table. He took one step in the direction of the latter, but stopped when the barista called out his name and order. Holding up a finger, Baekhyun mouthed “Give me a sec...” before rushing over to the pick-up counter and grabbing his drink.
After he grabbed a straw and shoved it through the plastic top, he walked back to Kyungsoo and sat across from him. The male was all smiles with a feel-good vibe that even Baekhyun couldn’t ignore. It had to be commented on.
“What’s with you?” Baekhyun said, making it obvious that Kyungsoo’s demeanors seemed odd and out of place, even for him. Not that it was a fault, but there was something different that he could feel and Baekhyun wanted to know what that really was. “Something good happen?”
“Mmm… Not really.” Continuing to type on his laptop, Kyungsoo kept glancing back and forth from his screen to Baekhyun. Over and over, on repeat. “Sorry, I’m just sending Chanyeol a quick message about our paper.”
“And that’s making you smile because…?”
“I don’t know. He’s funny,” Kyungsoo says, laughing. It wasn’t enough to stop Baekhyun from rolling his eyes and scoffing, however. “I’m just glad that he ended up being my partner. I thought I’d be stuck with another douche like last semester for my econometrics project. He’s actually really easy to talk to.”
“Well, that’s good. At least you two are carrying both the weight,” Baekhyun said, shrugging as he took a sip of his drink. Seconds passed before he nodded at the laptop in front of the latter. “What’re you working on?”
“The paper we’re working on together. We’re supposed to meet up today,” Kyungsoo explained. “It’s due tomorrow and we need to go over things one last time.”
Slightly biting his lower lip, looking as if he was pondering on a thought and trying to make a decision about whether he should ask or not, Kyungsoo ran a hand through his hair. “Actually, can I tell you something?”
“I mean, you look like you wanted to say something anyways, so go for it.”
“Shut up,” Kyungsoo retorted before brushing off the comment. He continued on after Baekhyun began motioning for him to finish what he wanted to say. “But since you’re okay with listening to me, I’ll tell you… So, like I said, Chanyeol’s a really funny and easy-going type of person.”
“Uh huh.”
“And we’ve been partners for the entire term, and honestly? I kind of like him.”
Baekhyun pursed his lips. His brows arched at the news, but it wasn’t too surprising. The way Kyungsoo smiled at the thought of just messaging the guy was enough to send crush vibes to everyone in that cafe. In another situation, it was great to hear that his friend had finally taken interest in someone who didn’t seem like a complete ass, which was, by far, a miracle; however… Was he supposed to tell Kyungsoo about the kiss? Maybe not. He was trying to act like it never happened and telling the man in front of him those details would’ve defeated the purpose.
It was a (slightly) complex issue, but he wasn’t anticipating it to be a problem. Instead, maybe it’d make things a little awkward if he and Chanyeol ended up being in the same room together again, but that was an unlikely scenario that he didn’t plan on happening.
At least, he was counting on it.
“So, what now? Are you going to ask him out on a date?”
“I actually am.” Kyungsoo nodded, giving him a small but slightly shy smile. His eyes drifted to his laptop screen. “I’m planning on doing it after we finish this assignment. We’ll have some free time before our exams. It might be a tight fit, but we can always grab coffee together, right?”
Baekhyun agreed. “A coffee run can be a quick, nice date.”
“Hm… What about a movie? I know he likes superheroes, so we can probably go see the new Star Wars movie.” Then, Kyungsoo shook his head. “Actually, nevermind. He’s probably already seen it. Is the new Ant-Man out, yet? You like those types of films, too, right?”
Putting his hand up in front of the latter’s face, Baekhyun stopped him. “First of all, Star Wars and Ant-Man aren’t even remotely in the same sub-genre. They’re two different things. Second, no. Ant-Man’s movie is set for July.” Just as Kyungsoo opened his mouth to interrupt, he was stopped again by a hand. “And lastly... just have a coffee date. Test out the waters. But then again, jumping off the deep end is also the better choice, too. I guess it’s entirely up to you.”
“Hmmm… Okay, then.” Sitting in his thoughts for a moment, Kyungsoo sighed before closing his laptop. “If that’s the case, then I think it’d be best if I hold off on asking him. I mean, finals are coming up and we’re both pretty busy, even after turning this assignment in. I’m also going to be out of the country over winter break for the holidays so I won’t be able to see or talk to him much… You know, I’m kind of feeling like I should ask him out next term? Early in the beginning. That’s probably the best time.”
“If you put it like that,” Baekhyun started, bobbing his head side to side as he animatedly thought about the situation, “then, yeah. The beginning of next term looks like it’s the best time. For now, maybe you should get to know him some more.”
“You’re right. I’ll try and see if I get any vibes from him for now.” Crossing his arms, Kyungsoo laughed to himself about a thought that randomly popped itself in his head. :”For someone really easy to talk to, he’s actually really hard to read. You know what I mean?”
Baekhyun smiled. He was all too familiar with the feeling, especially with his last encounter with Park Chanyeol. Although it didn’t click with him immediately at the time, he was sure that it only took a few seconds for the giant to piece two and two together--and yet, he was so calm and friendly that he didn’t even let on about whether or not he recognized him.
“I can see that,” Baekhyun commented, sounding as if he was indifferent to the subject, which he kind of was. Almost. “But he seems…cool. I feel like he’ll be upfront if he doesn’t feel the same.”
“Okay… Hopefully, that’s not the case.” Kyungsoo grimaced at the thought of rejection for a slight moment, but managed to pull a smile on his face. “Anyways, do you want to study again later tonight? I’m focusing on another course right now but I wanted to start the study guide for Finance.”
“Will he be there?” Baekhyun questioned, giving the latter a look. “Your study buddy.”
“He might. Why?”
“Nothing. I was just asking.”
“Sorry. Do you feel awkward now that you know how I feel…?” Concerned, Kyungsoo reached over and put a gentle hand on Baekhyun’s arm. “It’s okay. We can meet up another time, just the two of us. I don’t want you to feel like a third wheel.”
Shaking a hand in front of him, Baekhyun rejected the insinuation that he felt-in any way- like a “third wheel”. If anything, Kyungsoo was the odd one out, but then again, maybe he was just over thinking again and making the whole kiss thing bigger than it needed to be.
“No, no. It’s okay! I’m okay with studying with you guys again.”
“Okay, great! I have to pack up and go to a review session right now. I’ll text you the details later?”
Baekhyun gave him a nod. “Sounds good.”
-
-
It didn’t take long before Baekhyun began to regret ever agreeing to study with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol again. It happened the moment he sat down with them in the library that evening, especially when Kyungsoo quickly excused himself to go print his notes in the computer lab. Essentially, it left a gaping window of time for the silence between him and Chanyeol to just painstakingly linger. He did try to ignore the mood and slight tension between them, but those attempts broke immediately after he looked up and saw the taller male staring at him.
“What?” Baekhyun said rather bluntly to start things off. In fact, it was a little too blunt; he almost sounded rude. It bothered him so much that he was quick to offer up an apology. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol responded, smoothly. “I didn’t mean to stare at you like a weirdo. Might’ve seemed a little creepy. I was just thinking about something.”
Fuck. There were a million other places he would’ve much rather been at than in that library at the moment, but Baekhyun was stuck. He did manage to keep face and appear clueless about what Chanyeol’s words could’ve been alluding to even though his mind was a mosh pit of thoughts fighting one another.
“We met before, didn’t we.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
If the certainty in his voice wasn’t enough to convince Baekhyun to abandon all his doubts, Chanyeol’s expression on his face was the cherry on top of everything. After a few moments, he realized he only had two options--maybe even three if he wanted to go 50/50.
Option A: Deny it.
Option B: Carefully ask “What do you mean?” and continue to play dumb.
Option C: Admit it
The smartest option was obviously--
“No, we haven’t.” It came out of him before he could even process any other way of reacting. Baekhyun blamed his high anxiety at that point and the fact that he just wanted to put up his hood and shuffle back to the dorms where he’d stay for the rest of the term. “Okay, I mean, if you don’t count when Kyungsoo--”
“You were the one at the after party.” Chanyeol sounded so sure that Baekhyun almost wanted to be mad at the amount of confidence he had. However, he couldn’t bring himself to feel that way, especially not when the latter didn’t even remotely sound like a douche. Instead, the way Chanyeol looked and spoke made him feel like he was genuinely wanting to know if it was him that night.
“I…” Baekhyun was at a loss for words. “I don’t really go to parties.” And it was true. He didn’t. But the statement was ambiguous, and a part of him was hoping that it would throw Chanyeol off, but he didn’t take the bait.
“Come on. Be honest with me.” For the first time since they met, Chanyeol’s smile momentarily dropped, making him look more serious than before. “You looked too familiar to me the first time we met--officially.”
At first, Baekhyun said nothing. Realizing how he couldn’t deny it any further without going in a circle, he eventually decided to just...say it. “Fine. Yes, we’ve technically met.” He didn’t consider dancing and kissing as proper introductions, though. “I recognized you, too. I mean, it’s pretty hard to forget someone who’s as tall as you.”
“I knew it!” Chanyeol exclaimed. A few heads turned their way about the mildly loud outburst. Baekhyun tried to ignore the eyes, but the latter, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice the shift of attention. “I wanted to get your name before the party ended, but you left so suddenly with your friend.”
God bless, Jongdae.
“Sorry about that. I was a mess. My friend actually did me a favor by bringing me back to the dorms,” Baekhyun explained, giving a small laugh. “Like I said, I’m not really that big into parties so I guess I just… I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I went a little overboard--”
“No, don’t apologize. We’re all college students, so I think you can get a pass,” Chanyeol replied, laughing. “I’m just glad that now I’m not stuck overthinking about this anymore. Anyways, I’m glad that we finally met. It was kind of random, too, don’t you think?”
Agreeing, Baekhyun nodded. “It honestly was. No offense, but I completely forgot about that night until the other day.”
“It just clicked for you, too, right?”
“I guess you could say that.” Shrugging, Baekhyun smiled as he maintained eye contact. “I just wanted to say that I’m not usually like that. It’s a bit embarrassing so is it okay if we just don’t mention it?” Chanyeol’s face was difficult to read (Kyungsoo really wasn’t kidding). “Sorry, it’s just that you’re Kyungsoo’s friend and we don’t really know each other so, I just thought that--”
“No, no! Don’t apologize. I completely understand.” It sounded genuine. “You don’t have to worry about it.”
Surprised by Chanyeol’s pleasant (and really nice) response, which was the total opposite of what his mind was over-exaggerating in his head for the last 48 hours, Baekhyun clasped his hands together with the smile on his face showing the amount of relief he felt. “Wow. I didn’t expect that to go over as easy as it did. It’s almost like you’ve had this type of conversation before,” he joked, laughing softly.
The grin on Chanyeol’s face returned as he cocked his head. “What do you mean?” he asked. Though it was a question, it sounded more like he knew what he meant but wanted Baekhyun to keep talking anyways.
Which Baekhyun did.
“You know… Kissing every stranger at random parties.”
“Oh, no,” Chanyeol said. Their eyes locked and before Baekhyun could respond, the taller male leaned back in his seat and gave him a relaxed shrug. “I only kiss the cute ones.”
Right at that moment, Kyungsoo returned with multiple packets of paper and a curious expression on his face. “Hey, sorry that took a while. What’d I miss?” he asked, specifically looking over at Baekhyun who looked like he was knocked out of reality for a few good seconds. “Is everything okay?”
Chanyeol nodded. “Yeah. I was just telling him about the new Avengers movie coming out next spring.”
“Oh, is that a superhero movie?”
Baekhyun finally managed to recover from Chanyeol’s (flirty?) remark and turn his attention to Kyungsoo. “Yeah, and he basically spoiled the ending.”
“I told you the comic book ending. You know Hollywood likes to mix and match different storylines, so it’s probably going to end way differently.”
“You’re right. They do like to pull those last minute plot twists.”
“But it keeps the audience wanting more,” Chanyeol argued.
Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun scoffed. “Sometimes, but it’s kind of tacky.”
“Depends on the person.”
Kyungsoo exhaled as he settled in his head and opened his laptop. “You guys are a bunch of nerds.”
-
-
“That was a flirty thing to say and you know it.”
Baekhyun was too out of breath to say anything immediately. Reaching out, he lowered the treadmill speed back down to a level 4 for a short cool-down walk. “He’s really hard to read. I kind of get why Kyungsoo complains about it,” he said, voice raspy and tired. His legs were honestly killing him. “But I don’t know if I’d call that flirty. Maybe he was just kidding around.”
Jongdae was focused on maintaining his rate on the stairmaster machine, but Baekhyun’s willful ignorance was enough to make him snap his head to throw the latter a look of disapproval. “I swear to god, Byun Baekhyun--”
“Shut up,” Baekhyun said. He wasn’t in the mood to argue when his lungs were on fire. Being out of breath really wasn’t that pleasant, but he figured that it was what he deserved for skipping the gym so much. “I don’t want to think about it. I’m over it.”
“Okay, okay. Fine.” Jongdae looked at his watch. “We can leave soon if you want. I’m just about done with the session.”
“Same. I might meet up with some friends at Mandro’s for some boba after this. They need some help for the final on Monday.”
“You really have to start charging people if they want your help.” The stairmaster began to beep, congratulating Jongdae on finishing his 60-minute workout session. Hopping off the machine, he walked over to the side where disinfecting wipes were placed before returning and wiping down the handles he had touched. “Anyways, ready to go?”
Baekhyun pressed the button to end all his activities and, gradually, the treadmill reached a stop. Following Jongdae’s lead, he wiped down all the areas that he had touched. “Yeah. I’m all good.”
After they had grabbed their bags and tossed the wipes in the nearest bin, they began walking towards the exit, passing by other students using the gym equipments. Baekhyun actually disliked working out, but if there was one thing he couldn’t deny, it always made him feel good after (even though he always wanted to immediately find something to eat).
“So,” Jongdae started, interrupting Baekhyun’s thoughts. “I have a question for you.”
“Okay...?”
“You made it sound like you’re both into that Marvel and DC comics type of stuff, so if he’s that and he’s tall and handsome, then what’s the problem?” After he asked the question, Jongdae motioned his hand in front of him, trying to clarify. “I guess I mean to say, why not?”
Why not? It was pretty simple: Kyungsoo. Besides Kyungsoo, there was also Jongin and the whole break up situation, which wasn’t entirely as cut-throat and clean as he would’ve liked. They went to different universities and the distance was about a few hours away. That didn’t mean that their relationship couldn’t have worked if they just tried, but what the hell did “I want a break” even mean in that time and age?
He was left pondering about it for a few weeks after their initial break, but Baekhyun just liked to refer to it as a break-up despite still being in contact with Jongin every once in a while. It was a weird limbo state where he was unsure about his feelings towards his ex. There would always be an air of familiarity and comfort when speaking to him, but Baekhyun knew that it just wasn’t the same anymore.
However, he refused to be labeled as “hung up” over someone he wasn’t seeing anymore, but that didn’t make things any simpler.
Explaining all of this to Jongdae would’ve made things more complicated so Baekhyun opted to tell him the former. “Kyungsoo likes him.”
“What the fuck.”
Baekhyun was taken aback. “I mean, he told me a while ago. I’m really not trying to--”
“No, I wasn’t talking about that. Look,” Jongdae said in a lowered voice, grabbing Baekhyun’s arm and spinning him around until they were facing the weight room and looking through the clear glass wall that separated the room from the rest of the gym facility. “That’s him, right?”
“Who?” Baekhyun’s eyes searched through the entire room. “Where’re you looking?”
“There”, Jongdae enunciated. “Doing the bench press.”
It took a while for Baekhyun’s eyes to find what Jongdae was talking about, but when he did, he realized that aside from that one kiss, there’d be another thing he wouldn’t be able to get out of his long term memory.
Those fucking arms.
Unlike Jongdae, timing wasn’t Baekhyun’s friend. Maybe they were staring through the glass a little longer than they should’ve.
Chanyeol finished the last of his set and fixed the bar back into its standard position. After thanking the guys who spotted him, he reached down on the ground and grabbed his water bottle. As he was about to lift the bottle up to his lips, his eyes caught sight of two familiar faces standing outside the weight room.
They made eye contact. Baekhyun knew they did (or else why did he feel so attacked in that moment).
A second went by… Then, Chanyeol waved.
And Baekhyun waved back.
Jongdae, left out of whatever connection the other two were having, began to pull Baekhyun away towards the exit. “Let’s go
-
-
Finals went by quickly, and the only thing on Baekhyun’s mind after he walked out of his last exam was going home for the holidays and sleeping. Winter break was his favorite since it made staying in bed even more nice and fun.
“Got any plans for your break?” Baekhyun asked as the brunet packed his dirty laundry into a plastic bag before fitting into his suitcase. “Anything that doesn’t involve just staying inside?”
“Then, no. I don’t. I wish I didn’t, actually.” Heechul groaned. “My family wants to go up to a ski resort and spend my dad’s birthday there. What about you?”
“I’m staying here. My parents wanted to spend vacation somewhere warmer, but I prefer to stay here where it’s cold. I can’t stand sweating.”
“Relatable,” Heechul replied. “I really don’t care about skiing, but I like it enough.”
There wasn’t much inside since he had clothes and other things back at his parents’ home, so it was nice that it wasn’t too heavy to lug around. Once he was finished fitting everything in, Heechul zipped the bag. Rising up from the floor, he looked around one last time to make sure he had gotten everything he needed.
“I think that’s about it…” Glancing at the clock on the wall, Heechul figured he had a lot of time to spare to get to the train station. Looking back at Baekhyun who had buried himself underneath his covers. “I’ll see you later. Hope you have a decent holiday around here.”
“Mhmm. Same to you. Bye!” Baekhyun said with his voice muffled by his duvet. “Happy holidays.”
-
-
One of the things that made staying on campus during break better than going home was the obvious fact that there was barely any people around. Despite most student-run things being closed (like the video game room), Baekhyun found peace in the empty university gym.
For the most part, it was pretty much peace, minus Chanyeol talking to him because he was also staying behind.
“Hey, do you want to join an intramural sports team with me?” Chanyeol asked with uneven breath as he was finishing up at the bench with Baekhyun standing by the side as his spotter. “It’ll be fun.”
“What’s intramural?” Baekhyun had an idea just by the word ‘sports’ by itself, but if there was one thing that he was definitely not that great at, it was exactly that. At most, he was average with it.
“Oh! You can make your own teams around the school and-” The bar was against his chest, forcing him to pause and finish before pushing it back out again. “You play matches.”
“I never knew we had these programs here.”
“They’re pretty fun-Hold on. Spot me. I’m putting it back up.”
Nodding, Baekhyun put his hands under the bar. “Got it.”
It took a second, mainly because Chanyeol made it look so damn easy. Baekhyun’s arms couldn’t relate. Once the weights were safety back in their place, he took a step back and walked to the side as Chanyeol sat up. He rolled his shoulders, muttering about how they ached because he had skipped bench for a few days, and Baekhyun, in turn, nodded relating back to how sore his own legs would be if he didn’t run every once in a while.
“But anyways, yeah. Intramural is just, I guess, a fun side activity. I asked Kyungsoo, but he said he’d get back to me on that,” Chanyeol said, grinning up at Baekhyun. “Said sports wasn’t really his thing, but he might. He was willing to try it out.”
“What kind of team are you putting together?”
“Dodgeball, so it’s not that physically intensive as something like soccer, but I think it’s still challenging!” Chanyeol took gulp of water from his bottle before offering it to the latter. Shaking his head, Baekhyun politely declined. “I’m okay. Thanks, though,” he said, putting a hand up. “But uh… I’ll think about it-the intramural thing. It might be fun.”
“Might be? I’m the one putting the whole team together. It’ll be great!”
Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun scoffed. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to roll your eyes at someone?” Chanyeol stood up, immediately towering over him. Grinning, he gave a gentle shove against Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I’m just kidding-Well. I’m kind of serious, though. It’ll be fun. I’d really like it if you joined.”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
Baekhyun reached to the floor, grabbing his own gym bag. As he waited for Chanyeol to finish sanitizing the equipment first before walking towards the weight room exit, making sure that the giant wasn’t too far behind that he couldn’t catch up in a few steps. Luckily for Chanyeol’s long legs, he didn’t have to wait very long.
“So…” Baekhyun slowly started as soon as they walked out of the building. The night air was calm and quiet, except for some of the crickets but it didn’t make it feel like they weren’t the only two people in the world. They had been going to the gym together for a while, but it was still weird-mainly because Baekhyun didn’t really know how to say good-bye without being painfully awkward. “I guess, I’ll see you tom-”
“Wanna go see The Last Jedi with me?”
Caught off guard, Baekhyun took a second to recollect himself. “Right now?”
“No, not now. I meant tomorrow after we’ve had the chance to shower and all that,” Chanyeol replied, laughing. “Unless you want to go catch the 10:30 showing in five minutes.”
“God, no. I feel gross and I look a mess right now.”
“I don’t think you do,” Chanyeol told him, shrugging.
Maybe it was the lack of attention he usually got, but Baekhyun debated whether or not the latter’s comments were borderline flirty or if he was just being a moron who couldn’t recognize basic compliments without overthinking.
He probably was overthinking it too much. As always.
“Thanks.” Looking away, Baekhyun combed his bangs back with his hand, pushing it all away from his face. “So, what time did you want to go?”
“Is seven good for you?”
“Yeah, that sounds fine.”
“Cool! I’ll pick you up at 5:30 and we can get dinner before then,” Chanyeol said, reaching in his basketball shorts for his phone. After quickly reading over his recent messages, he cursed underneath his breath before looking up to give Baekhyun an apologetic look (despite looking pretty damn ecstatic). “Ah, I have to go right now. My roommate locked himself out of our room again. Tomorrow, yeah?”
Nodding, Baekhyun smiled. “Yeah, tomorrow.”
“Alright. It’s a date, then!” Chanyeol gave him a wave (accompanied by a quick, fleeting wink). “Later!”
“Bye-”
Wait.
Date?
Baekhyun stopped in the midst of his wave, but it was too late for Chanyeol to see the change in his facial expression. He had already turned around and started jogging the other way.
-
-
[ Heechul ] : That’s a date.
[ Baekhyun ] : We didn’t say it was.
[ Heechul ] : I mean, he’s picking you up, isn’t he?
[ Baekhyun ] : Yeah, he is.
[ Heechul ] : And you’re getting dinner together.
[ Baekhyun ] : Friends do that all the time, though…?
[ Heechul ] : But do they call it a “date”?
[ Baekhyun ] I think he was joking.
[ Heechul ] : …
[ Heechul ] : I can’t believe he’s so smooth, he asked you out and you didn’t even know it. What a man.
-
-
For a while, Baekhyun tried convincing himself that it wasn’t a date by muttering it over and over again in the shower, in front of the mirror while he was getting ready, and as he sat around waiting for Chanyeol to text him that he was outside his building. He was nervous. The fact that he was shaking his knee faster than the second hand on the clock made it pretty obvious, but it wasn’t because he didn’t like Chanyeol enough to be on this “date” with him, but more so because it felt so spontaneous and unplanned. Then again, other things happened that were also “spontaneous and unplanned”, but he was over that.
Attempting to calm his nerves, Baekhyun fell back on his bed and closed his eyes. There had to be something to keep his mind off of Chanyeol, and he kept trying to figure out what it was; however, his train of thought was cut short by the sound of text notification.
Almost immediately, he stood up and checked the text, expecting it to be Chanyeol, letting him know that he was outside the building, but instead, saw that it was a text from Jongin.
[ Jongin ] : Hey, are you coming home for the break?
Baekhyun frowned. They had both agreed to be friends, but it was still weird downgrading, especially when the break-up was less mutual than what Baekhyun wished it actually was. They hadn’t texted much since the split either, but he figured it wasn’t totally out of the blue…
[ Baekhyun ] : No.
[ Baekhyun ] : I’m staying at the University this year.
[ Jongin ] : I was gonna ask if you wanted to do a get together with everyone.
Sighing, Baekhyun began to reply but stopped.
[ Chanyeol ] : Hey, I’m outside. Come out :)
[ Jongin ] : We haven’t seen each other in a while. Thought it’d be fun if we all went out and did something.
Grabbing his student ID card off his desk, Baekhyun double-checked to see if his wallet was in his back pocket before heading out the door. Once he reached the elevator, he pressed the button to go down and responded back to Jongin as he waited for the doors to open.
[ Baekhyun ] : Sorry :/
[ Baekhyun ] : It was a last minute decision.
[ Jongin ] : It’s ok! Don’t worry about it.
[ Baekhyun ] : Maybe next time?
[ Jongin ] : Yeah. Next time. I’ll ask Kyungsoo if he wants to come.
The doors opened and Baekhyun walked inside, immediately exiting the conversation with Jongin as soon as the message sent. He should’ve mentioned that Kyungsoo was out of the country, but ultimately decided that Jongin would find out sooner or later by himself. Afterwards, he turned his attention back to Chanyeol.
[ Baekhyun ] : Coming! I’ll be out in a sec.
[ Chanyeol ] : Don’t worry about it. Take your time ;)
There it was again. The constant feeling of uncertainty. What did the winky face mean (if it meant anything at all)? It could’ve also been a mistake and nothing else…
Baekhyun didn’t have a lot of time to ponder about all the possibilities of how Chanyeol’s thumb could’ve sent the wrong emoticon. The elevator reached the ground floor and the moment he stepped outside, he looked up and saw Chanyeol sitting outside on the concrete bench. He was dressed a bit nicer than he usually looked, but overall, still casual. The long Baekhyun, on the other hand, had his flannel shirt all buttoned up and tucked with a big, orange winter over it.
Chanyeol was looking at his phone, so Baekhyun took the chance to quickly undo his neat appearance. After he finished unbuttoning the shirt and pulling it out from its tucked form, he zipped up his coat and walked towards the front entrance, greeting Chanyeol with a smile.
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Oh, I wasn’t waiting for that long! Don’t apologize!”
Baekhyun realized a second later how his eyes were stuck on his stupid grin, but looking back up and meeting Chanyeol’s eyes still had the same effect on him. There was practically no winning.
“That’s good. So, uh, how’re we going to get there?” Baekhyun asked, more so to make conversation as they walked, but he was also curious what direction they were going in.
“I’ll get us a taxi.”
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to ride the bus?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. It’s on me,” Chanyeol said. Before Baekhyun could argue, he put his hand up and stopped him. “We’ll get to the restaurant faster this way. I promise. And hey, I’m hungry, too, so the sooner we eat, the better.”
“Chanyeol, it’s…” Baekhyun pursed his lips. “We don’t have to get there immediately. Maybe we can get some snacks on the way to the station?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Chanyeol looked away and turned his eyes to the ground. “The bus might take a while, and... I got the worst reservation time.”
“Reservation?” Baekhyun quirked his brows up at him. “Where’re we eating?”
“I really like this one place. They do Italian food,” Chanyeol sheepishly explained, looking a bit embarrassed as he talked about it. “I wanted to make sure we’d be able to get a table--Oh, but if you don’t like Italian, then I could probably cancel. You wanted to get snacks on the way to the station, right?”
“It’s--No, no. It’s fine! You already went through the trouble. We can go.” Thinking about how much money he had on him (since he only planned on the movie ticket and a light meal), Baekhyun carefully offered a share of his funds. “But since you did all of this, let me pay for the taxi.”
As they reached the end of the campus near the drop-off area, Chanyeol looked down at Baekhyun with his arms crossed. Despite his stature, Baekhyun didn’t find him intimidating in the least bit. “Okay, how about this... Let’s split the taxi bill on the way there, then take the train back since it’s cheaper and we won’t be rushing to get back on campus. How does that sound?”
“That sounds better.”
“Great!” Glancing at his watch, Chanyeol hummed. “The taxi should be here any minute. I called fifteen minutes ago.”
Baekhyun scoffed in disbelief. “So, you knew I’d say yes to the taxi?”
Laughing, Chanyeol looked at him briefly before shrugging. “You’re almost kind of predictable?”
The remark made Baekhyun pause for a moment to think about. If he could see right through him, did that mean that Chanyeol knew about all his flustered and clumsy feelings? They were almost as everywhere as his thoughts. The possibility almost made Baekhyun want to run in the other direction, but he smiled and stayed his ground.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol told him with a confidence that Baekhyun kind of hated that he didn’t have. Then, the giant playfully nudged him by the elbow, immediately making Baekhyun “By the way, why’d you untuck your shirt from before? You looked cute.”
Pursing his lips, Baekhyun inwardly groaned. Chanyeol saw. Of course he did.
-
-
Baekhyun believed that three things must happen in order for something to be considered a real “date”. One, the invitation should be exclusive for one person and one person only. In his case, Chanyeol did ask him if he wanted to see the movie with him, which he said yes to. It didn’t take a genius to realize that it was only the both of them there, but then again, it was the holidays and not a lot of people decided to stay on campus. Chanyeol’s options could’ve just been depleted and he was his only friend left to ask.
That could’ve been it.
The second thing was food and drinks. If the person who extended the invitation also even so much as to offer to buy the other person’s food, then that was definitely a date. He looked over to where Chanyeol was buying popcorn from the movie stand. The guy had asked him before if he wanted a snack, but Baekhyun refused (to test the waters). For a short moment, he felt like maybe it wasn’t a date, but it was short lived when Chanyeol turned around, holding two small bags of popcorn and two bottles of water tucked underneath his right arm.
It really was a date.
Baekhyun felt his face turning red. All of a sudden, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Chanyeol.
“Listen, I know you said you didn’t want anything, but come on. You can’t go to the movies without getting popcorn!” Chuckling, Chanyeol offered the bag in his left hand. “I didn’t know if you liked butter so I just told them to put a little bit.”
“I--” Baekhyun looked at the popcorn bag in his hand, thinking of what to say next. “I guess… Thank you? You didn’t have to.”
The last (but definitely not the least) and third criteria was for person A to casually mention the word “date” and Chanyeol never said--
“What kind of person would I be if I didn’t pay for my date?”
There was a quick pause, but it was enough for Baekhyun’s brain to fully process what his ears had just heard. By then, his heart was already pounding.
“So, this really is a date then, huh?” Surprisingly, his voice didn’t waver all that much.
Chanyeol looked a bit surprised by the question. It insinuated that Baekhyun didn’t know at all, which was the complete opposite of what he had thought. “Yes?” He frowned, tilting his head to the side. “I thought I made it clear that I was asking you out. Sorry if I--”
“No, no. I mean, of course it’s a date.” Baekhyun knew he was overcompensating with all the hand movements he was making. He lost about ten pieces of popcorn within the span of five seconds until Chanyeol gently took a hold on his hand to stop anymore from spilling. “Sorry… But, as I was saying, I was just overthinking it and--”
“You know,” Chanyeol said, interrupting him, “if you just want to watch it as friends, we can. I don’t want you feeling awkward. It’s already kind of awkward now that you… I guess, didn’t understand what I meant.”
Just as Chanyeol was removing his hand, Baekhyun intervened, grabbing it just as he was pulling away. “No, I want this to be a thing.” He almost cringed, almost in disbelief that he actually said those exact words. “I want this to be a first date.”
“Baek--”
“Really.” Baekhyun bit his bottom lip. The look in Chanyeol’s eyes had a glimmer of doubt, and for a moment, Baekhyun worried that maybe he wasn’t convinced at all. Then, a second later, he felt the giant’s hand slide over his.
There was a long pause, but Baekhyun refused to look away, waiting for Chanyeol to say something first. When nothing came about, he figured he had waited enough. He opened his mouth to break the silence, but was immediately cut off by Chanyeol shaking his head at him to stop.
“Alright. We’ll keep this as a date,” he started, slowly. “But just so we’re on the same page, I didn’t ask you to watch this movie as friends. I was actually asking you out. Okay?”
“Okay,” Baekhyun agreed, but not without defending himself. “To be honest, though, you asked it so casually, how was I supposed to know?”
“What do you mean ‘casually’?”
“You were like ‘Oh, you want to go see Star Wars with me?’,” Baekhyun said, attempting to imitate the latter’s deep voice (poorly). “That sounded a lot like a buddy-buddy invite.”
“I thought you knew I liked you! That’s why I didn’t try to make it sound so much as a proposal. Instead, I thought it was a ‘Hey, let’s go on a date’ kind of thing.”
Baekhyun blinked. “I didn’t know you liked me.”
“If I didn’t, wouldn’t that defeat the whole purpose of the date?”
“Oh.” It was a stupid thing to say, but Baekhyun only realized it after it was said. “Okay, well, I kind of figured you did because of the whole flirting thing-Wait. You were flirting all those times, right?”
“Come on.” Chanyeol laughed as he began to pull him along and it didn’t go unnoticed to either of them that their hands were still locked together. However, neither one said anything. It just felt natural. “Let’s go find our seats. We’re in theater four.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Baekhyun pointed out as he tried his best to keep up with Chanyeol’s strides.
Grabbing the handle of theater door, Chanyeol briefly let go of Baekhyun’s hand as he held the entrance open. Cocking his head to the side, he signaled for him to go in before following right after. “I was.”
“Sometimes you made it hard to tell,” Baekhyun whispered, loudly enough for Chanyeol to hear, fully aware of the new hush environment. It was dark, but somehow the giant managed to slip their hands together again, heading towards the seats. “I figured you were just being nice.”
“Didn’t you think I was being a little too nice, though?”
Baekhyun wanted to say ‘yes’, because those were the moments when he probably should’ve just taken the hint instead of pondering about possible explanations as to why Chanyeol did this and that, but he decided against it. Sighing, he shrugged. “Now I know.”
Chanyeol softly chuckled as his shoulder lightly bumped into Baekhyun’s own. “You’re really cute, honestly.”
“Shut up.”
-
-
Baekhyun didn’t date much before Jongin and absolutely no one else after him, but he always felt as though kissing someone on the first date was a bit much, almost borderline tacky. It was almost an unspoken rule he had set up with himself to never do unless he really had a good time and planned on seeing the other person again.
Which, with Chanyeol, he did.
As they were approaching Baekhyun’s dorm building, he began to seriously question whether he should kiss Chanyeol (if the mood was right). The giant, on the other hand, didn’t seem to linger on about the issue, too busy talking about his feelings on the movie, which Baekhyun thought was kind of… sweet.
“I can’t believe how hard Disney was really pushing for Rey and Kylo.”
Chuckling, Baekhyun smiled up at him. “I don’t know. I kind of liked it a lot.”
“Me, too, but come on. They literally used Snoke as a plot device for Rey and Ben’s story line. ” Chanyeol argued, motioning his hand in a circular motion. “And that thing about Rey’s parents being nobody important? All that build up for that?”
“You can’t be serious! Snoke was literally the most boring, two-dimensional villain and they hinted that her parents were a bunch of unimportant junkers the entire time!” Baekhyun said, pointing it out. He wasn’t even remotely heated about the conversation, but it got his blood rushing enough that it was making his cheeks red against the cold, dry winter air.
“Yeah? When?”
“When she was in that cave, tapping on the mirror? And all she saw was herself? If she had important parents, that would’ve been the time to show them.”
“Okay, but I honestly thought she’d be someone’s daughter that they decided to hide.”
Cocking his head, Baekhyun raised a brow. “Not everyone has to come from an important family. Look at Ben. His parents are Han and Leia with Luke as his uncle. And what is he? A little fucked up.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“How’re you not agreeing with me, though?” It was a little stupid, but Baekhyun couldn’t stop smiling. His face was starting to hurt. “Anakin didn’t have important parents and he ended up being the villain.”
“You think Rey might end up being the new Darth Vader-esque villain in this trilogy?”
“All I’m saying is that you never know.”
He had gotten so caught up in their conversational debate that Baekhyun didn’t notice that they had stopped right in front of his building. Reluctantly, he let go of Chanyeol’s arm and smiled as he stepped away from him. “Thanks for walking me home. I know you didn’t have to, but still… Thank you.”
“No problem,” Chanyeol replied, sticking his hands in the front pockets of his jacket. “Be careful walking back in. I don’t want to see you slipping and falling.”
“You’ll catch me though, right?” Baekhyun said, teasing him.
The smirk on Chanyeol’s face threw Baekhyun off. It always threw him off.
“Only if you want me to.”
Not that he would ever admit it out loud , but Baekhyun was definitely struck by him. His whole presence and by the way that he talked so smoothly... It didn’t take more than split second for him to realize how completely, and utterly, drawn in he really was.
“Okay, well, I should go now.” Yet, Baekhyun didn’t move. “See you some other time?”
“Sure! Another movie?”
“Yeah, that sounds fun! Um…Bye!” Keep his hands in his pockets, Baekhyun began his way back inside his building before stopping halfway between the doors and Chanyeol, who continued to stand outside to make sure everything was alright. Then, after thinking ‘Fuck it’, Baekhyun turned on his heel, jogging back to where Chanyeol was standing and stood on his tippy toes to plant a quick kiss on the side of the giant’s warm cheek.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then, Baekhyun pulled away, attempting to hide his shy smile. “Okay, have a good night. Good-bye!”
Chanyeol was beaming and there was absolutely no hiding it. “Bye.”
PART 2
Pairing: Chanyeol/Baekhyun
Rating: Pg
Word Count: 15k
Summary: Baekhyun accidentally kisses his best friend's crush.
A/n: I wrote this for Baeconandeggs2018. Hope you guys enjoy if you haven't read it off aff or ao3 yet lol
Being sexiled from his own dorm was really annoying, but Baekhyun didn’t really have any other choice but to drag himself over to the floor lounge and study there. Who even had time to have sex when the semester was nearing an end and finals were beginning the week after? It was just one of the things that Baekhyun didn’t fully understand, but maybe it was because he was one of those kids who were solely intent on just studying and not so much on having an actual love life.
He prided himself in being a decent student, but like others, he was also prone to just wandering the internet and making fake shopping lists of things he didn’t have money to actually buy. His financial economics homework was mind-numbing and aside from jamming lines of commands into the R-program, his brain needed an actual break.
As he was watching his third movie review video on Youtube, his eyes wandered upwards and noticed a text sent to him by Kyungsoo
[ Kyungsoo ] : Hey! Were you able to finish problem 4 of the homework??
Pausing his video, Baekhyun looked over the paper piles on his left before he responded.
[ Baekhyun ] : Yeah. It’s pretty easy. What part did you need help on?
[ Kyungsoo ]I just don’t get the problem at all.
[ Baekhyun ] : Just solve for the Beta for portfolio A and B. It’s basically just a linear line used as an indicator to predict future returns of investments. Just remember that the larger the Beta, the riskier the portfolio.
[ Kyungsoo ] : ....
[ Kyungsoo ] : So how do you do that, again?
Sighing, Baekhyun pulled out his phone and took a photo of his work (not that there was much to show). After sending the image over, he tried to explain the problem again.
[ Baekhyun] : Once you get it, you’ll be set. Like I said, it’s not that hard, but you should probably learn the concept behind it. I think our TA has notes on his website about it.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Alright. Thanks!
[ Baekhyun ] : Sure! Just let me know if you need anything else.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Kk
As he was beginning to close their conversation, he received another text from his friend.
[ Kyungsoo ] : Actually, what’re you doing right now? Do you wanna come by the 24 hour lounge near the library and study with me?
The study area wasn’t too far from where Baekhyun was. It was a little over five to seven minutes to walk there. Normally, he’d decline, but being in the dorm lounge was uncomfortable and he was still bitter about being sexiled by his roommate, so staying there really didn’t do anything but make him slightly irritated.
Granted, it sounded like Kyungsoo hadn’t been attending lecture recently to actually understand the homework, which was the easiest one thus far, but studying with him and being around someone else seemed like a much better alternative compared to watching cat videos alone.
Baekhyun: Yeah, sure. I don’t mind. Just tell me where you’re sitting. I’ll be there in about 10.
Kyungsoo: Cool! See you in a few.
-
-
The 24-hour study hall was exactly like Baekhyun thought it’d look--crowded. There were a few open seats in between certains groups, mostly because it seemed like common courtesy to sit at least one seat away from other people. It only made Baekhyun’s job of trying to spot Kyungsoo in the sea of dark-haired students harder.
Just as he was about to text the latter to ask for his location, he heard a faint voice amongst the other students’ voices, calling out his name. Looking up, he saw two flailing arms in the air, which was enough to let him know that it was Kyungsoo.
After walking past other students sitting on the same long study table, he set his things next to Kyungsoo’s bag and sat down in the seat that had been saved for him.
“Sorry for asking you to come here so late. Were you at the dorms?” Kyungsoo asked, moving some of his papers over to his side in order to make room.
“Uh, I was in the lounge area. Roommate kicked me out,” Baekhyun answered.
“Did Heechul give you the 10-minute warning, though?”
“Got it right after I got out of my discussion section.”
“Mmm… Well, you’re better off here with me, anyways,” Kyungsoo said, smiling. Then, his facial expression changed as he looked to the man sitting across from him and placed a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Oh! By the way, this is my friend, Chanyeol. I met him in my upper division writing workshop.”
Turning to the man who was holding out his hand confidently out for him to accept, Baekhyun smiled and exchanged a quick shake. “Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Baekhyun.”
The grin on Chanyeol’s face was kind of tantalizing, taking Baekhyun aback, but he didn’t let on about those feelings. “Baekhyun,” he said, reiterating the latter’s name as if to recall. “I feel like I’ve met you before.”
Shrugging, Baekhyun pulled away and settled into his seat. “Well, it is a small world, so who knows. Maybe.”
“That’s impossible,” Kyungsoo commented. “All Baekhyun does is stay cooped up somewhere, studying. That or watching basketball.”
Chanyeol raised his brows. “You like basketball?”
“Depends. I watch home games, sometimes,” Baekhyun answered. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Basketball was just one of his more preferred pastime sports, but the tidbit seemed to perk the latter’s interest anyways. “You?”
“I go to the games pretty often, but the after party is where it’s at.”
“Ah…” Baekhyun smiled. Being that their university was ranked within the top five colleges for basketball meant that it was a big thing. And, logically, the bigger the team, the bigger the parties to hype (and celebrate) said team. “Haven’t really been to any of those.”
“Really?” Chanyeol looked as if he didn’t believe him and Baekhyun wondered why that was. “That’s too bad. They’re really fun. But anyways, I’ll stop bothering you about basketball and let you two get to work on your finance homework.”
-
-
The thing with Kyungsoo introducing him to Chanyeol was that Baekhyun already knew him. Chanyeol was right and it was really easy to read it off his face the second he recognized him. Groaning, Baekhyun set his head down on his desk and stayed that way for a few minutes. How the hell was he supposed to know that the random stranger he decided to make out with months ago (and then ditch in the crowd) would somehow end up being introduced to him by his best friend?
He was embarrassed--mostly because he was honestly not himself that night at all and, normally, he’d never even think about dancing against someone he didn’t know before consequently just--
There was a click before the door to his right opened. A few seconds passed before he heard the familiar sound of his roommate’s voice. “What’s up with you?”
Heechul wasn’t a nosy roommate, but he occasionally liked to hear about Baekhyun’s business. It wasn’t that big of a deal since Baekhyun would actually rant to him about his courses and anything that was bothering him at the time. It kinda helped how he wasn’t really part of his friend circle, so he was a safe person to spill the beans to and then later trust that those beans wouldn’t get spilled out to other people.
Baekhyun raised his head off his desk and spun his chair around to face his curious roommate as he walked through their dorm room, setting his things on his side. “Have you ever made out with someone?” he blurted out (blatantly). “I mean, like… Someone you didn’t even know.”
Rolling his eyes, Heechul climbed on his bed, tired despite having only attended one class that day. “Isn’t that what college is about? Hooking up to forget how stressed you are? Why? Did you kiss someone, Byun Baekhyun?”
“No-- Well. Yes, but just one time,” Baekhyun said quickly as if he really had to defend his reasons. “It doesn’t even matter because I regret the whole thing. I’m actually really embarrassed because I thought I’d never see the guy again and then… Kyungsoo introduces us.”
Intrigued, Heechul grabbed a pillow and hugged it as he lied down on his front. He quirked his lips and then gave Baekhyun a playful smile. “And then…?”
“And then… I don’t know.”
“Did he recognize you?” Heechul asked.
“I’m not sure, but I think he might’ve.” Baekhyun threw his head back and let out an exasperated groan. “I shouldn’t care, but I do. That was just… really embarrassing. It wasn’t like me. If I wasn’t so drunk and...and…”
Heartbroken? Recently broken up with?
Drinking wasn’t usually one of Baekhyun’s favorite activities, and it wasn’t normal for him to even go to a college party thrown by one of the frats, but the opportunity came up right after Jongin had broken up with him and he really just wanted to forget about him… So then what? He found a rebound guy for the night? It sounded kind of bad, but at the same time, dancing against a (hot) guy and not being judged for it seemed like a good idea to him then.
But emphasis on then.
If Baekhyun remembered correctly (his memory was a bit of a haze), he--Chanyeol--did ask for his name and number, but Jongdae, the friend who had brought him there in the first place, found him before making an excuse about how they had to go. It didn’t give any of them time to exchange info, but none of that mattered since they literally shook hands the other night and stared into each other’s eyes.
Ngh.
“I just needed to forget about Jongin. That’s all. That’s all I wanted. Now I feel like I have to apologize to this poor guy for being…weird at a dumb frat party.”
“Or just don’t mention it. Pretend it never happened,” Heechul suggested as he shrugged his shoulders. It was a simple and straight solution to him. “He’s more like Kyungsoo’s friend, right?”
Were they really friends? Baekhyun remembered him mentioning they were partners for a writing class, but the word “friends” seemed like it was a stretch. Then again, who was he to judge when Kyungsoo seemed like he was completely and utterly comfortable with the guy?
“Sure. I mean, I guess,” Baekhyun said, finally answering after he stalled into silence for a few seconds.
“Then you won’t really have to see him. He’s not your problem, anyways.”
“Yeah… You’re right. I have other things to worry about,” Baekhyun mumbled as he turned back towards his desk, eyeing the practice exams he had neatly splayed over the surface. His entire station looked like a disheveled mess, but he was nearly ready to take a break anyhow. Fixing it up then would’ve been a waste of time. “I think I’ll walk down to the cafe on campus and grab something to eat. Do you want anything?”
Shaking his head, Heechul raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up. “I’m good. Thanks for asking.”
“Alright then.” Baekhyun pushed himself away from the desk and stood up, making sure to grab his lanyard and dorm key before walking towards the door. As he was turning the handle, he turned his head back momentarily and called out to Heechul. “By the way, thanks for listening.”
All he received as a quick “mhm”, but it was a typical response from Heechul, so Baekhyun didn’t give it too much thought. In fact, he was right. Pretending like that night didn’t happen was his best option.
-
-
The walk down to the cafe took about ten minutes since Baekhyun’s dorm was the farthest building from any type of student store that the university had to offer. Maybe if he was a freshman he would’ve gotten one of the newer dorms closer to everything from shops to lecture halls, but the juniors were always assigned to one out of the three buildings. Baekhyun just so happen to be in the one building that was the most isolated.
Letting himself in, Baekhyun held the door open for the person walking in behind him before getting in line and wondering if he wanted anything to go with his macchiato. Caffeine always stifled his hunger and that would really save him some money, but at the same time, his eyes couldn’t help but land on the bagels on display.
After he ordered, he walked over to the side and went on his phone, hoping to pass the time quickly by scrolling through his feed on Facebook. There weren’t a lot of other people waiting for their drinks, so he figured that he wouldn’t have to wait as long.
It was the sound of his name being called that jerked his attention away from his phone. Turning around, Baekhyun immediately spotted Kyungsoo’s familiar face, waving at him from a table. He took one step in the direction of the latter, but stopped when the barista called out his name and order. Holding up a finger, Baekhyun mouthed “Give me a sec...” before rushing over to the pick-up counter and grabbing his drink.
After he grabbed a straw and shoved it through the plastic top, he walked back to Kyungsoo and sat across from him. The male was all smiles with a feel-good vibe that even Baekhyun couldn’t ignore. It had to be commented on.
“What’s with you?” Baekhyun said, making it obvious that Kyungsoo’s demeanors seemed odd and out of place, even for him. Not that it was a fault, but there was something different that he could feel and Baekhyun wanted to know what that really was. “Something good happen?”
“Mmm… Not really.” Continuing to type on his laptop, Kyungsoo kept glancing back and forth from his screen to Baekhyun. Over and over, on repeat. “Sorry, I’m just sending Chanyeol a quick message about our paper.”
“And that’s making you smile because…?”
“I don’t know. He’s funny,” Kyungsoo says, laughing. It wasn’t enough to stop Baekhyun from rolling his eyes and scoffing, however. “I’m just glad that he ended up being my partner. I thought I’d be stuck with another douche like last semester for my econometrics project. He’s actually really easy to talk to.”
“Well, that’s good. At least you two are carrying both the weight,” Baekhyun said, shrugging as he took a sip of his drink. Seconds passed before he nodded at the laptop in front of the latter. “What’re you working on?”
“The paper we’re working on together. We’re supposed to meet up today,” Kyungsoo explained. “It’s due tomorrow and we need to go over things one last time.”
Slightly biting his lower lip, looking as if he was pondering on a thought and trying to make a decision about whether he should ask or not, Kyungsoo ran a hand through his hair. “Actually, can I tell you something?”
“I mean, you look like you wanted to say something anyways, so go for it.”
“Shut up,” Kyungsoo retorted before brushing off the comment. He continued on after Baekhyun began motioning for him to finish what he wanted to say. “But since you’re okay with listening to me, I’ll tell you… So, like I said, Chanyeol’s a really funny and easy-going type of person.”
“Uh huh.”
“And we’ve been partners for the entire term, and honestly? I kind of like him.”
Baekhyun pursed his lips. His brows arched at the news, but it wasn’t too surprising. The way Kyungsoo smiled at the thought of just messaging the guy was enough to send crush vibes to everyone in that cafe. In another situation, it was great to hear that his friend had finally taken interest in someone who didn’t seem like a complete ass, which was, by far, a miracle; however… Was he supposed to tell Kyungsoo about the kiss? Maybe not. He was trying to act like it never happened and telling the man in front of him those details would’ve defeated the purpose.
It was a (slightly) complex issue, but he wasn’t anticipating it to be a problem. Instead, maybe it’d make things a little awkward if he and Chanyeol ended up being in the same room together again, but that was an unlikely scenario that he didn’t plan on happening.
At least, he was counting on it.
“So, what now? Are you going to ask him out on a date?”
“I actually am.” Kyungsoo nodded, giving him a small but slightly shy smile. His eyes drifted to his laptop screen. “I’m planning on doing it after we finish this assignment. We’ll have some free time before our exams. It might be a tight fit, but we can always grab coffee together, right?”
Baekhyun agreed. “A coffee run can be a quick, nice date.”
“Hm… What about a movie? I know he likes superheroes, so we can probably go see the new Star Wars movie.” Then, Kyungsoo shook his head. “Actually, nevermind. He’s probably already seen it. Is the new Ant-Man out, yet? You like those types of films, too, right?”
Putting his hand up in front of the latter’s face, Baekhyun stopped him. “First of all, Star Wars and Ant-Man aren’t even remotely in the same sub-genre. They’re two different things. Second, no. Ant-Man’s movie is set for July.” Just as Kyungsoo opened his mouth to interrupt, he was stopped again by a hand. “And lastly... just have a coffee date. Test out the waters. But then again, jumping off the deep end is also the better choice, too. I guess it’s entirely up to you.”
“Hmmm… Okay, then.” Sitting in his thoughts for a moment, Kyungsoo sighed before closing his laptop. “If that’s the case, then I think it’d be best if I hold off on asking him. I mean, finals are coming up and we’re both pretty busy, even after turning this assignment in. I’m also going to be out of the country over winter break for the holidays so I won’t be able to see or talk to him much… You know, I’m kind of feeling like I should ask him out next term? Early in the beginning. That’s probably the best time.”
“If you put it like that,” Baekhyun started, bobbing his head side to side as he animatedly thought about the situation, “then, yeah. The beginning of next term looks like it’s the best time. For now, maybe you should get to know him some more.”
“You’re right. I’ll try and see if I get any vibes from him for now.” Crossing his arms, Kyungsoo laughed to himself about a thought that randomly popped itself in his head. :”For someone really easy to talk to, he’s actually really hard to read. You know what I mean?”
Baekhyun smiled. He was all too familiar with the feeling, especially with his last encounter with Park Chanyeol. Although it didn’t click with him immediately at the time, he was sure that it only took a few seconds for the giant to piece two and two together--and yet, he was so calm and friendly that he didn’t even let on about whether or not he recognized him.
“I can see that,” Baekhyun commented, sounding as if he was indifferent to the subject, which he kind of was. Almost. “But he seems…cool. I feel like he’ll be upfront if he doesn’t feel the same.”
“Okay… Hopefully, that’s not the case.” Kyungsoo grimaced at the thought of rejection for a slight moment, but managed to pull a smile on his face. “Anyways, do you want to study again later tonight? I’m focusing on another course right now but I wanted to start the study guide for Finance.”
“Will he be there?” Baekhyun questioned, giving the latter a look. “Your study buddy.”
“He might. Why?”
“Nothing. I was just asking.”
“Sorry. Do you feel awkward now that you know how I feel…?” Concerned, Kyungsoo reached over and put a gentle hand on Baekhyun’s arm. “It’s okay. We can meet up another time, just the two of us. I don’t want you to feel like a third wheel.”
Shaking a hand in front of him, Baekhyun rejected the insinuation that he felt-in any way- like a “third wheel”. If anything, Kyungsoo was the odd one out, but then again, maybe he was just over thinking again and making the whole kiss thing bigger than it needed to be.
“No, no. It’s okay! I’m okay with studying with you guys again.”
“Okay, great! I have to pack up and go to a review session right now. I’ll text you the details later?”
Baekhyun gave him a nod. “Sounds good.”
-
-
It didn’t take long before Baekhyun began to regret ever agreeing to study with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol again. It happened the moment he sat down with them in the library that evening, especially when Kyungsoo quickly excused himself to go print his notes in the computer lab. Essentially, it left a gaping window of time for the silence between him and Chanyeol to just painstakingly linger. He did try to ignore the mood and slight tension between them, but those attempts broke immediately after he looked up and saw the taller male staring at him.
“What?” Baekhyun said rather bluntly to start things off. In fact, it was a little too blunt; he almost sounded rude. It bothered him so much that he was quick to offer up an apology. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chanyeol responded, smoothly. “I didn’t mean to stare at you like a weirdo. Might’ve seemed a little creepy. I was just thinking about something.”
Fuck. There were a million other places he would’ve much rather been at than in that library at the moment, but Baekhyun was stuck. He did manage to keep face and appear clueless about what Chanyeol’s words could’ve been alluding to even though his mind was a mosh pit of thoughts fighting one another.
“We met before, didn’t we.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
If the certainty in his voice wasn’t enough to convince Baekhyun to abandon all his doubts, Chanyeol’s expression on his face was the cherry on top of everything. After a few moments, he realized he only had two options--maybe even three if he wanted to go 50/50.
Option A: Deny it.
Option B: Carefully ask “What do you mean?” and continue to play dumb.
Option C: Admit it
The smartest option was obviously--
“No, we haven’t.” It came out of him before he could even process any other way of reacting. Baekhyun blamed his high anxiety at that point and the fact that he just wanted to put up his hood and shuffle back to the dorms where he’d stay for the rest of the term. “Okay, I mean, if you don’t count when Kyungsoo--”
“You were the one at the after party.” Chanyeol sounded so sure that Baekhyun almost wanted to be mad at the amount of confidence he had. However, he couldn’t bring himself to feel that way, especially not when the latter didn’t even remotely sound like a douche. Instead, the way Chanyeol looked and spoke made him feel like he was genuinely wanting to know if it was him that night.
“I…” Baekhyun was at a loss for words. “I don’t really go to parties.” And it was true. He didn’t. But the statement was ambiguous, and a part of him was hoping that it would throw Chanyeol off, but he didn’t take the bait.
“Come on. Be honest with me.” For the first time since they met, Chanyeol’s smile momentarily dropped, making him look more serious than before. “You looked too familiar to me the first time we met--officially.”
At first, Baekhyun said nothing. Realizing how he couldn’t deny it any further without going in a circle, he eventually decided to just...say it. “Fine. Yes, we’ve technically met.” He didn’t consider dancing and kissing as proper introductions, though. “I recognized you, too. I mean, it’s pretty hard to forget someone who’s as tall as you.”
“I knew it!” Chanyeol exclaimed. A few heads turned their way about the mildly loud outburst. Baekhyun tried to ignore the eyes, but the latter, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice the shift of attention. “I wanted to get your name before the party ended, but you left so suddenly with your friend.”
God bless, Jongdae.
“Sorry about that. I was a mess. My friend actually did me a favor by bringing me back to the dorms,” Baekhyun explained, giving a small laugh. “Like I said, I’m not really that big into parties so I guess I just… I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I went a little overboard--”
“No, don’t apologize. We’re all college students, so I think you can get a pass,” Chanyeol replied, laughing. “I’m just glad that now I’m not stuck overthinking about this anymore. Anyways, I’m glad that we finally met. It was kind of random, too, don’t you think?”
Agreeing, Baekhyun nodded. “It honestly was. No offense, but I completely forgot about that night until the other day.”
“It just clicked for you, too, right?”
“I guess you could say that.” Shrugging, Baekhyun smiled as he maintained eye contact. “I just wanted to say that I’m not usually like that. It’s a bit embarrassing so is it okay if we just don’t mention it?” Chanyeol’s face was difficult to read (Kyungsoo really wasn’t kidding). “Sorry, it’s just that you’re Kyungsoo’s friend and we don’t really know each other so, I just thought that--”
“No, no! Don’t apologize. I completely understand.” It sounded genuine. “You don’t have to worry about it.”
Surprised by Chanyeol’s pleasant (and really nice) response, which was the total opposite of what his mind was over-exaggerating in his head for the last 48 hours, Baekhyun clasped his hands together with the smile on his face showing the amount of relief he felt. “Wow. I didn’t expect that to go over as easy as it did. It’s almost like you’ve had this type of conversation before,” he joked, laughing softly.
The grin on Chanyeol’s face returned as he cocked his head. “What do you mean?” he asked. Though it was a question, it sounded more like he knew what he meant but wanted Baekhyun to keep talking anyways.
Which Baekhyun did.
“You know… Kissing every stranger at random parties.”
“Oh, no,” Chanyeol said. Their eyes locked and before Baekhyun could respond, the taller male leaned back in his seat and gave him a relaxed shrug. “I only kiss the cute ones.”
Right at that moment, Kyungsoo returned with multiple packets of paper and a curious expression on his face. “Hey, sorry that took a while. What’d I miss?” he asked, specifically looking over at Baekhyun who looked like he was knocked out of reality for a few good seconds. “Is everything okay?”
Chanyeol nodded. “Yeah. I was just telling him about the new Avengers movie coming out next spring.”
“Oh, is that a superhero movie?”
Baekhyun finally managed to recover from Chanyeol’s (flirty?) remark and turn his attention to Kyungsoo. “Yeah, and he basically spoiled the ending.”
“I told you the comic book ending. You know Hollywood likes to mix and match different storylines, so it’s probably going to end way differently.”
“You’re right. They do like to pull those last minute plot twists.”
“But it keeps the audience wanting more,” Chanyeol argued.
Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun scoffed. “Sometimes, but it’s kind of tacky.”
“Depends on the person.”
Kyungsoo exhaled as he settled in his head and opened his laptop. “You guys are a bunch of nerds.”
-
-
“That was a flirty thing to say and you know it.”
Baekhyun was too out of breath to say anything immediately. Reaching out, he lowered the treadmill speed back down to a level 4 for a short cool-down walk. “He’s really hard to read. I kind of get why Kyungsoo complains about it,” he said, voice raspy and tired. His legs were honestly killing him. “But I don’t know if I’d call that flirty. Maybe he was just kidding around.”
Jongdae was focused on maintaining his rate on the stairmaster machine, but Baekhyun’s willful ignorance was enough to make him snap his head to throw the latter a look of disapproval. “I swear to god, Byun Baekhyun--”
“Shut up,” Baekhyun said. He wasn’t in the mood to argue when his lungs were on fire. Being out of breath really wasn’t that pleasant, but he figured that it was what he deserved for skipping the gym so much. “I don’t want to think about it. I’m over it.”
“Okay, okay. Fine.” Jongdae looked at his watch. “We can leave soon if you want. I’m just about done with the session.”
“Same. I might meet up with some friends at Mandro’s for some boba after this. They need some help for the final on Monday.”
“You really have to start charging people if they want your help.” The stairmaster began to beep, congratulating Jongdae on finishing his 60-minute workout session. Hopping off the machine, he walked over to the side where disinfecting wipes were placed before returning and wiping down the handles he had touched. “Anyways, ready to go?”
Baekhyun pressed the button to end all his activities and, gradually, the treadmill reached a stop. Following Jongdae’s lead, he wiped down all the areas that he had touched. “Yeah. I’m all good.”
After they had grabbed their bags and tossed the wipes in the nearest bin, they began walking towards the exit, passing by other students using the gym equipments. Baekhyun actually disliked working out, but if there was one thing he couldn’t deny, it always made him feel good after (even though he always wanted to immediately find something to eat).
“So,” Jongdae started, interrupting Baekhyun’s thoughts. “I have a question for you.”
“Okay...?”
“You made it sound like you’re both into that Marvel and DC comics type of stuff, so if he’s that and he’s tall and handsome, then what’s the problem?” After he asked the question, Jongdae motioned his hand in front of him, trying to clarify. “I guess I mean to say, why not?”
Why not? It was pretty simple: Kyungsoo. Besides Kyungsoo, there was also Jongin and the whole break up situation, which wasn’t entirely as cut-throat and clean as he would’ve liked. They went to different universities and the distance was about a few hours away. That didn’t mean that their relationship couldn’t have worked if they just tried, but what the hell did “I want a break” even mean in that time and age?
He was left pondering about it for a few weeks after their initial break, but Baekhyun just liked to refer to it as a break-up despite still being in contact with Jongin every once in a while. It was a weird limbo state where he was unsure about his feelings towards his ex. There would always be an air of familiarity and comfort when speaking to him, but Baekhyun knew that it just wasn’t the same anymore.
However, he refused to be labeled as “hung up” over someone he wasn’t seeing anymore, but that didn’t make things any simpler.
Explaining all of this to Jongdae would’ve made things more complicated so Baekhyun opted to tell him the former. “Kyungsoo likes him.”
“What the fuck.”
Baekhyun was taken aback. “I mean, he told me a while ago. I’m really not trying to--”
“No, I wasn’t talking about that. Look,” Jongdae said in a lowered voice, grabbing Baekhyun’s arm and spinning him around until they were facing the weight room and looking through the clear glass wall that separated the room from the rest of the gym facility. “That’s him, right?”
“Who?” Baekhyun’s eyes searched through the entire room. “Where’re you looking?”
“There”, Jongdae enunciated. “Doing the bench press.”
It took a while for Baekhyun’s eyes to find what Jongdae was talking about, but when he did, he realized that aside from that one kiss, there’d be another thing he wouldn’t be able to get out of his long term memory.
Those fucking arms.
Unlike Jongdae, timing wasn’t Baekhyun’s friend. Maybe they were staring through the glass a little longer than they should’ve.
Chanyeol finished the last of his set and fixed the bar back into its standard position. After thanking the guys who spotted him, he reached down on the ground and grabbed his water bottle. As he was about to lift the bottle up to his lips, his eyes caught sight of two familiar faces standing outside the weight room.
They made eye contact. Baekhyun knew they did (or else why did he feel so attacked in that moment).
A second went by… Then, Chanyeol waved.
And Baekhyun waved back.
Jongdae, left out of whatever connection the other two were having, began to pull Baekhyun away towards the exit. “Let’s go
-
-
Finals went by quickly, and the only thing on Baekhyun’s mind after he walked out of his last exam was going home for the holidays and sleeping. Winter break was his favorite since it made staying in bed even more nice and fun.
“Got any plans for your break?” Baekhyun asked as the brunet packed his dirty laundry into a plastic bag before fitting into his suitcase. “Anything that doesn’t involve just staying inside?”
“Then, no. I don’t. I wish I didn’t, actually.” Heechul groaned. “My family wants to go up to a ski resort and spend my dad’s birthday there. What about you?”
“I’m staying here. My parents wanted to spend vacation somewhere warmer, but I prefer to stay here where it’s cold. I can’t stand sweating.”
“Relatable,” Heechul replied. “I really don’t care about skiing, but I like it enough.”
There wasn’t much inside since he had clothes and other things back at his parents’ home, so it was nice that it wasn’t too heavy to lug around. Once he was finished fitting everything in, Heechul zipped the bag. Rising up from the floor, he looked around one last time to make sure he had gotten everything he needed.
“I think that’s about it…” Glancing at the clock on the wall, Heechul figured he had a lot of time to spare to get to the train station. Looking back at Baekhyun who had buried himself underneath his covers. “I’ll see you later. Hope you have a decent holiday around here.”
“Mhmm. Same to you. Bye!” Baekhyun said with his voice muffled by his duvet. “Happy holidays.”
-
-
One of the things that made staying on campus during break better than going home was the obvious fact that there was barely any people around. Despite most student-run things being closed (like the video game room), Baekhyun found peace in the empty university gym.
For the most part, it was pretty much peace, minus Chanyeol talking to him because he was also staying behind.
“Hey, do you want to join an intramural sports team with me?” Chanyeol asked with uneven breath as he was finishing up at the bench with Baekhyun standing by the side as his spotter. “It’ll be fun.”
“What’s intramural?” Baekhyun had an idea just by the word ‘sports’ by itself, but if there was one thing that he was definitely not that great at, it was exactly that. At most, he was average with it.
“Oh! You can make your own teams around the school and-” The bar was against his chest, forcing him to pause and finish before pushing it back out again. “You play matches.”
“I never knew we had these programs here.”
“They’re pretty fun-Hold on. Spot me. I’m putting it back up.”
Nodding, Baekhyun put his hands under the bar. “Got it.”
It took a second, mainly because Chanyeol made it look so damn easy. Baekhyun’s arms couldn’t relate. Once the weights were safety back in their place, he took a step back and walked to the side as Chanyeol sat up. He rolled his shoulders, muttering about how they ached because he had skipped bench for a few days, and Baekhyun, in turn, nodded relating back to how sore his own legs would be if he didn’t run every once in a while.
“But anyways, yeah. Intramural is just, I guess, a fun side activity. I asked Kyungsoo, but he said he’d get back to me on that,” Chanyeol said, grinning up at Baekhyun. “Said sports wasn’t really his thing, but he might. He was willing to try it out.”
“What kind of team are you putting together?”
“Dodgeball, so it’s not that physically intensive as something like soccer, but I think it’s still challenging!” Chanyeol took gulp of water from his bottle before offering it to the latter. Shaking his head, Baekhyun politely declined. “I’m okay. Thanks, though,” he said, putting a hand up. “But uh… I’ll think about it-the intramural thing. It might be fun.”
“Might be? I’m the one putting the whole team together. It’ll be great!”
Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun scoffed. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to roll your eyes at someone?” Chanyeol stood up, immediately towering over him. Grinning, he gave a gentle shove against Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I’m just kidding-Well. I’m kind of serious, though. It’ll be fun. I’d really like it if you joined.”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
Baekhyun reached to the floor, grabbing his own gym bag. As he waited for Chanyeol to finish sanitizing the equipment first before walking towards the weight room exit, making sure that the giant wasn’t too far behind that he couldn’t catch up in a few steps. Luckily for Chanyeol’s long legs, he didn’t have to wait very long.
“So…” Baekhyun slowly started as soon as they walked out of the building. The night air was calm and quiet, except for some of the crickets but it didn’t make it feel like they weren’t the only two people in the world. They had been going to the gym together for a while, but it was still weird-mainly because Baekhyun didn’t really know how to say good-bye without being painfully awkward. “I guess, I’ll see you tom-”
“Wanna go see The Last Jedi with me?”
Caught off guard, Baekhyun took a second to recollect himself. “Right now?”
“No, not now. I meant tomorrow after we’ve had the chance to shower and all that,” Chanyeol replied, laughing. “Unless you want to go catch the 10:30 showing in five minutes.”
“God, no. I feel gross and I look a mess right now.”
“I don’t think you do,” Chanyeol told him, shrugging.
Maybe it was the lack of attention he usually got, but Baekhyun debated whether or not the latter’s comments were borderline flirty or if he was just being a moron who couldn’t recognize basic compliments without overthinking.
He probably was overthinking it too much. As always.
“Thanks.” Looking away, Baekhyun combed his bangs back with his hand, pushing it all away from his face. “So, what time did you want to go?”
“Is seven good for you?”
“Yeah, that sounds fine.”
“Cool! I’ll pick you up at 5:30 and we can get dinner before then,” Chanyeol said, reaching in his basketball shorts for his phone. After quickly reading over his recent messages, he cursed underneath his breath before looking up to give Baekhyun an apologetic look (despite looking pretty damn ecstatic). “Ah, I have to go right now. My roommate locked himself out of our room again. Tomorrow, yeah?”
Nodding, Baekhyun smiled. “Yeah, tomorrow.”
“Alright. It’s a date, then!” Chanyeol gave him a wave (accompanied by a quick, fleeting wink). “Later!”
“Bye-”
Wait.
Date?
Baekhyun stopped in the midst of his wave, but it was too late for Chanyeol to see the change in his facial expression. He had already turned around and started jogging the other way.
-
-
[ Heechul ] : That’s a date.
[ Baekhyun ] : We didn’t say it was.
[ Heechul ] : I mean, he’s picking you up, isn’t he?
[ Baekhyun ] : Yeah, he is.
[ Heechul ] : And you’re getting dinner together.
[ Baekhyun ] : Friends do that all the time, though…?
[ Heechul ] : But do they call it a “date”?
[ Baekhyun ] I think he was joking.
[ Heechul ] : …
[ Heechul ] : I can’t believe he’s so smooth, he asked you out and you didn’t even know it. What a man.
-
-
For a while, Baekhyun tried convincing himself that it wasn’t a date by muttering it over and over again in the shower, in front of the mirror while he was getting ready, and as he sat around waiting for Chanyeol to text him that he was outside his building. He was nervous. The fact that he was shaking his knee faster than the second hand on the clock made it pretty obvious, but it wasn’t because he didn’t like Chanyeol enough to be on this “date” with him, but more so because it felt so spontaneous and unplanned. Then again, other things happened that were also “spontaneous and unplanned”, but he was over that.
Attempting to calm his nerves, Baekhyun fell back on his bed and closed his eyes. There had to be something to keep his mind off of Chanyeol, and he kept trying to figure out what it was; however, his train of thought was cut short by the sound of text notification.
Almost immediately, he stood up and checked the text, expecting it to be Chanyeol, letting him know that he was outside the building, but instead, saw that it was a text from Jongin.
[ Jongin ] : Hey, are you coming home for the break?
Baekhyun frowned. They had both agreed to be friends, but it was still weird downgrading, especially when the break-up was less mutual than what Baekhyun wished it actually was. They hadn’t texted much since the split either, but he figured it wasn’t totally out of the blue…
[ Baekhyun ] : No.
[ Baekhyun ] : I’m staying at the University this year.
[ Jongin ] : I was gonna ask if you wanted to do a get together with everyone.
Sighing, Baekhyun began to reply but stopped.
[ Chanyeol ] : Hey, I’m outside. Come out :)
[ Jongin ] : We haven’t seen each other in a while. Thought it’d be fun if we all went out and did something.
Grabbing his student ID card off his desk, Baekhyun double-checked to see if his wallet was in his back pocket before heading out the door. Once he reached the elevator, he pressed the button to go down and responded back to Jongin as he waited for the doors to open.
[ Baekhyun ] : Sorry :/
[ Baekhyun ] : It was a last minute decision.
[ Jongin ] : It’s ok! Don’t worry about it.
[ Baekhyun ] : Maybe next time?
[ Jongin ] : Yeah. Next time. I’ll ask Kyungsoo if he wants to come.
The doors opened and Baekhyun walked inside, immediately exiting the conversation with Jongin as soon as the message sent. He should’ve mentioned that Kyungsoo was out of the country, but ultimately decided that Jongin would find out sooner or later by himself. Afterwards, he turned his attention back to Chanyeol.
[ Baekhyun ] : Coming! I’ll be out in a sec.
[ Chanyeol ] : Don’t worry about it. Take your time ;)
There it was again. The constant feeling of uncertainty. What did the winky face mean (if it meant anything at all)? It could’ve also been a mistake and nothing else…
Baekhyun didn’t have a lot of time to ponder about all the possibilities of how Chanyeol’s thumb could’ve sent the wrong emoticon. The elevator reached the ground floor and the moment he stepped outside, he looked up and saw Chanyeol sitting outside on the concrete bench. He was dressed a bit nicer than he usually looked, but overall, still casual. The long Baekhyun, on the other hand, had his flannel shirt all buttoned up and tucked with a big, orange winter over it.
Chanyeol was looking at his phone, so Baekhyun took the chance to quickly undo his neat appearance. After he finished unbuttoning the shirt and pulling it out from its tucked form, he zipped up his coat and walked towards the front entrance, greeting Chanyeol with a smile.
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Oh, I wasn’t waiting for that long! Don’t apologize!”
Baekhyun realized a second later how his eyes were stuck on his stupid grin, but looking back up and meeting Chanyeol’s eyes still had the same effect on him. There was practically no winning.
“That’s good. So, uh, how’re we going to get there?” Baekhyun asked, more so to make conversation as they walked, but he was also curious what direction they were going in.
“I’ll get us a taxi.”
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to ride the bus?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. It’s on me,” Chanyeol said. Before Baekhyun could argue, he put his hand up and stopped him. “We’ll get to the restaurant faster this way. I promise. And hey, I’m hungry, too, so the sooner we eat, the better.”
“Chanyeol, it’s…” Baekhyun pursed his lips. “We don’t have to get there immediately. Maybe we can get some snacks on the way to the station?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Chanyeol looked away and turned his eyes to the ground. “The bus might take a while, and... I got the worst reservation time.”
“Reservation?” Baekhyun quirked his brows up at him. “Where’re we eating?”
“I really like this one place. They do Italian food,” Chanyeol sheepishly explained, looking a bit embarrassed as he talked about it. “I wanted to make sure we’d be able to get a table--Oh, but if you don’t like Italian, then I could probably cancel. You wanted to get snacks on the way to the station, right?”
“It’s--No, no. It’s fine! You already went through the trouble. We can go.” Thinking about how much money he had on him (since he only planned on the movie ticket and a light meal), Baekhyun carefully offered a share of his funds. “But since you did all of this, let me pay for the taxi.”
As they reached the end of the campus near the drop-off area, Chanyeol looked down at Baekhyun with his arms crossed. Despite his stature, Baekhyun didn’t find him intimidating in the least bit. “Okay, how about this... Let’s split the taxi bill on the way there, then take the train back since it’s cheaper and we won’t be rushing to get back on campus. How does that sound?”
“That sounds better.”
“Great!” Glancing at his watch, Chanyeol hummed. “The taxi should be here any minute. I called fifteen minutes ago.”
Baekhyun scoffed in disbelief. “So, you knew I’d say yes to the taxi?”
Laughing, Chanyeol looked at him briefly before shrugging. “You’re almost kind of predictable?”
The remark made Baekhyun pause for a moment to think about. If he could see right through him, did that mean that Chanyeol knew about all his flustered and clumsy feelings? They were almost as everywhere as his thoughts. The possibility almost made Baekhyun want to run in the other direction, but he smiled and stayed his ground.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol told him with a confidence that Baekhyun kind of hated that he didn’t have. Then, the giant playfully nudged him by the elbow, immediately making Baekhyun “By the way, why’d you untuck your shirt from before? You looked cute.”
Pursing his lips, Baekhyun inwardly groaned. Chanyeol saw. Of course he did.
-
-
Baekhyun believed that three things must happen in order for something to be considered a real “date”. One, the invitation should be exclusive for one person and one person only. In his case, Chanyeol did ask him if he wanted to see the movie with him, which he said yes to. It didn’t take a genius to realize that it was only the both of them there, but then again, it was the holidays and not a lot of people decided to stay on campus. Chanyeol’s options could’ve just been depleted and he was his only friend left to ask.
That could’ve been it.
The second thing was food and drinks. If the person who extended the invitation also even so much as to offer to buy the other person’s food, then that was definitely a date. He looked over to where Chanyeol was buying popcorn from the movie stand. The guy had asked him before if he wanted a snack, but Baekhyun refused (to test the waters). For a short moment, he felt like maybe it wasn’t a date, but it was short lived when Chanyeol turned around, holding two small bags of popcorn and two bottles of water tucked underneath his right arm.
It really was a date.
Baekhyun felt his face turning red. All of a sudden, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Chanyeol.
“Listen, I know you said you didn’t want anything, but come on. You can’t go to the movies without getting popcorn!” Chuckling, Chanyeol offered the bag in his left hand. “I didn’t know if you liked butter so I just told them to put a little bit.”
“I--” Baekhyun looked at the popcorn bag in his hand, thinking of what to say next. “I guess… Thank you? You didn’t have to.”
The last (but definitely not the least) and third criteria was for person A to casually mention the word “date” and Chanyeol never said--
“What kind of person would I be if I didn’t pay for my date?”
There was a quick pause, but it was enough for Baekhyun’s brain to fully process what his ears had just heard. By then, his heart was already pounding.
“So, this really is a date then, huh?” Surprisingly, his voice didn’t waver all that much.
Chanyeol looked a bit surprised by the question. It insinuated that Baekhyun didn’t know at all, which was the complete opposite of what he had thought. “Yes?” He frowned, tilting his head to the side. “I thought I made it clear that I was asking you out. Sorry if I--”
“No, no. I mean, of course it’s a date.” Baekhyun knew he was overcompensating with all the hand movements he was making. He lost about ten pieces of popcorn within the span of five seconds until Chanyeol gently took a hold on his hand to stop anymore from spilling. “Sorry… But, as I was saying, I was just overthinking it and--”
“You know,” Chanyeol said, interrupting him, “if you just want to watch it as friends, we can. I don’t want you feeling awkward. It’s already kind of awkward now that you… I guess, didn’t understand what I meant.”
Just as Chanyeol was removing his hand, Baekhyun intervened, grabbing it just as he was pulling away. “No, I want this to be a thing.” He almost cringed, almost in disbelief that he actually said those exact words. “I want this to be a first date.”
“Baek--”
“Really.” Baekhyun bit his bottom lip. The look in Chanyeol’s eyes had a glimmer of doubt, and for a moment, Baekhyun worried that maybe he wasn’t convinced at all. Then, a second later, he felt the giant’s hand slide over his.
There was a long pause, but Baekhyun refused to look away, waiting for Chanyeol to say something first. When nothing came about, he figured he had waited enough. He opened his mouth to break the silence, but was immediately cut off by Chanyeol shaking his head at him to stop.
“Alright. We’ll keep this as a date,” he started, slowly. “But just so we’re on the same page, I didn’t ask you to watch this movie as friends. I was actually asking you out. Okay?”
“Okay,” Baekhyun agreed, but not without defending himself. “To be honest, though, you asked it so casually, how was I supposed to know?”
“What do you mean ‘casually’?”
“You were like ‘Oh, you want to go see Star Wars with me?’,” Baekhyun said, attempting to imitate the latter’s deep voice (poorly). “That sounded a lot like a buddy-buddy invite.”
“I thought you knew I liked you! That’s why I didn’t try to make it sound so much as a proposal. Instead, I thought it was a ‘Hey, let’s go on a date’ kind of thing.”
Baekhyun blinked. “I didn’t know you liked me.”
“If I didn’t, wouldn’t that defeat the whole purpose of the date?”
“Oh.” It was a stupid thing to say, but Baekhyun only realized it after it was said. “Okay, well, I kind of figured you did because of the whole flirting thing-Wait. You were flirting all those times, right?”
“Come on.” Chanyeol laughed as he began to pull him along and it didn’t go unnoticed to either of them that their hands were still locked together. However, neither one said anything. It just felt natural. “Let’s go find our seats. We’re in theater four.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Baekhyun pointed out as he tried his best to keep up with Chanyeol’s strides.
Grabbing the handle of theater door, Chanyeol briefly let go of Baekhyun’s hand as he held the entrance open. Cocking his head to the side, he signaled for him to go in before following right after. “I was.”
“Sometimes you made it hard to tell,” Baekhyun whispered, loudly enough for Chanyeol to hear, fully aware of the new hush environment. It was dark, but somehow the giant managed to slip their hands together again, heading towards the seats. “I figured you were just being nice.”
“Didn’t you think I was being a little too nice, though?”
Baekhyun wanted to say ‘yes’, because those were the moments when he probably should’ve just taken the hint instead of pondering about possible explanations as to why Chanyeol did this and that, but he decided against it. Sighing, he shrugged. “Now I know.”
Chanyeol softly chuckled as his shoulder lightly bumped into Baekhyun’s own. “You’re really cute, honestly.”
“Shut up.”
-
-
Baekhyun didn’t date much before Jongin and absolutely no one else after him, but he always felt as though kissing someone on the first date was a bit much, almost borderline tacky. It was almost an unspoken rule he had set up with himself to never do unless he really had a good time and planned on seeing the other person again.
Which, with Chanyeol, he did.
As they were approaching Baekhyun’s dorm building, he began to seriously question whether he should kiss Chanyeol (if the mood was right). The giant, on the other hand, didn’t seem to linger on about the issue, too busy talking about his feelings on the movie, which Baekhyun thought was kind of… sweet.
“I can’t believe how hard Disney was really pushing for Rey and Kylo.”
Chuckling, Baekhyun smiled up at him. “I don’t know. I kind of liked it a lot.”
“Me, too, but come on. They literally used Snoke as a plot device for Rey and Ben’s story line. ” Chanyeol argued, motioning his hand in a circular motion. “And that thing about Rey’s parents being nobody important? All that build up for that?”
“You can’t be serious! Snoke was literally the most boring, two-dimensional villain and they hinted that her parents were a bunch of unimportant junkers the entire time!” Baekhyun said, pointing it out. He wasn’t even remotely heated about the conversation, but it got his blood rushing enough that it was making his cheeks red against the cold, dry winter air.
“Yeah? When?”
“When she was in that cave, tapping on the mirror? And all she saw was herself? If she had important parents, that would’ve been the time to show them.”
“Okay, but I honestly thought she’d be someone’s daughter that they decided to hide.”
Cocking his head, Baekhyun raised a brow. “Not everyone has to come from an important family. Look at Ben. His parents are Han and Leia with Luke as his uncle. And what is he? A little fucked up.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“How’re you not agreeing with me, though?” It was a little stupid, but Baekhyun couldn’t stop smiling. His face was starting to hurt. “Anakin didn’t have important parents and he ended up being the villain.”
“You think Rey might end up being the new Darth Vader-esque villain in this trilogy?”
“All I’m saying is that you never know.”
He had gotten so caught up in their conversational debate that Baekhyun didn’t notice that they had stopped right in front of his building. Reluctantly, he let go of Chanyeol’s arm and smiled as he stepped away from him. “Thanks for walking me home. I know you didn’t have to, but still… Thank you.”
“No problem,” Chanyeol replied, sticking his hands in the front pockets of his jacket. “Be careful walking back in. I don’t want to see you slipping and falling.”
“You’ll catch me though, right?” Baekhyun said, teasing him.
The smirk on Chanyeol’s face threw Baekhyun off. It always threw him off.
“Only if you want me to.”
Not that he would ever admit it out loud , but Baekhyun was definitely struck by him. His whole presence and by the way that he talked so smoothly... It didn’t take more than split second for him to realize how completely, and utterly, drawn in he really was.
“Okay, well, I should go now.” Yet, Baekhyun didn’t move. “See you some other time?”
“Sure! Another movie?”
“Yeah, that sounds fun! Um…Bye!” Keep his hands in his pockets, Baekhyun began his way back inside his building before stopping halfway between the doors and Chanyeol, who continued to stand outside to make sure everything was alright. Then, after thinking ‘Fuck it’, Baekhyun turned on his heel, jogging back to where Chanyeol was standing and stood on his tippy toes to plant a quick kiss on the side of the giant’s warm cheek.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then, Baekhyun pulled away, attempting to hide his shy smile. “Okay, have a good night. Good-bye!”
Chanyeol was beaming and there was absolutely no hiding it. “Bye.”
PART 2