Paper Planes (2/?)
Paper Planes (2/?)
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol, Kris/Baekhyun, side!Luhan/Kris
Genre: Romance, Drama, University!AU
Word Count: 5k+
Summary: Not everyone can dismiss curiosity easily, is what Chanyeol wants to tell Yixing, because the whole morning, he couldn’t stop thinking about the man who lives behind the mysterious door.
Chanyeol’s back at the dorm by dinner. The first thing he sees is Yixing awkwardly clicking the mouse of his computer, headphones on, completely unbothered by his presence. Remembering the scene he caused earlier makes him infuriated with Yixing’s behavior. He walks to his side and abruptly pulls Yixing’s earphones out of his head. Yixing turns to him with a surprised glare. “Hey!”
“Don’t ignore me.”
“I’m not ignoring you. I was listening to some music!”
Chanyeol snorts and lifts the end of the headphones’ cord. “You should’ve at least plugged it in.” He says facetiously. He throws the earphones back to Yixing before walking to his bed, sinking on to the mattress with a tired sigh and slowly, his eyes close. Some unexpected turn of events drained his energy. He opens his eyes to stare at the ceiling and there’s a mental flashback of Baekhyun’s face and his eyes getting uncovered with the sudden wind hitting his fringe. He looked hangover, his eyes are exhausted, but somehow at that time he was glowing. And Chanyeol doesn’t really know why he sees it that way. “Hey Yixing, are you still not going to tell me anything?”
Chanyeol hears Yixing turning his computer seat to him. “I told you. You don’t have to know. I’m pretty sure you can get through college without having to get involved with Byun Baekhyun and Kris Wu.”
“You’re his friend right?” Chanyeol says. “You yelled at him earlier.”
“Who cares? Even a cat can yell at him. We’re not exactly close-bonded.”
Chanyeol snorts at how thin the lines to being a lie that is. “You say that but you’re bothered when someone asks about him. You say you don’t care, that Baekhyun is just some troublemaker, but you go through a lot of efforts to keep people from being too interested in him.” He sits up slowly and sees Yixing’s puzzled expression. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
Yixing stands up, subtly trying to avoid the subject, and walks to his bed to grab his phone. “Believe anything you want. I still have no reason to tell you what you want to know.”
“I almost died!” Chanyeol argues, his patience slowly growing thinner. “I’m pretty sure Kris’ fist was all fired up to beat the shit out of me and then here comes Baekhyun to the rescue who practically saved my life with only two damn sentences!”
Yixing reads the message on his phone before turning to Chanyeol. “Alright. I’m going to tell you everything if I don’t get interrupted before I finish this sente-“
The door slams open, revealing Sehun who’s panting, and Chanyeol falls back down to the bed with an angry groan. Yixing smirks in victory. Sehun glanced at them both with a confused expression. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. Don’t mind him.”
“I should’ve locked that door.” Chanyeol murmurs.
Sehun welcomes himself inside. “Hey, poker night. The car’s downstairs with Jongin.”
“Please tell me Jongin’s not driving.”
“Of course not. I am.”
Yixing laughs. “Dream on.” He takes his wallet and phone, ready to leave when Sehun refuses to get out of the way. “Sehun.”
“Listen. There is a reason why I came here to get you instead of just texting you.”
“Oh God.”
“Baekhyun’s back, right? Which means Kris is back in the club. Dude, he’s going to own our asses tonight.”
“So? We never won against him anyway. No big deal.”
“That’s because we’re intimidated too much. Jongin said he’s not going anywhere with his car if we don’t find someone on Kris’ league to come with us tonight.”
“What’s got Jongin’s pants?”
“Beats me.”
“Alright. Let’s say this shit is a good idea. Where the hell are we going to find quote, someone on Kris’ league to come with us tonight, unquote?”
Sehun makes a subtle glance at Chanyeol who’s lazily lying on the bed and Yixing nearly chokes on humid air. He pulls Sehun with him outside and closes the door. “Are you crazy? We can’t bring him!”
“Think about it. Kris is there. Baekhyun’s there. If Chanyeol is with us, he practically wouldn’t be able to raise a fist on any of us. Baekhyun helped him earlier. He’s going to help him again this time.”
Yixing absolutely, extremely, enormously hates it when Sehun starts making sense because when Sehun starts to make sense, it means whatever crap he’s spouting is the only bright idea in the world any human can think of at the moment. Yixing half-heartedly opens the door and peeks inside, waiting for a few moments before finally opening his mouth to speak. “Chanyeol, wanna come with us?”
“No. Poker. Clubbing. No. I have to study.”
Yixing retreats back but Sehun is making this face. So Yixing, again, half-heartedly walks back inside the room. “Chanyeol-“
“No.”
Yixing groans. “Fine. You want to know everything about Byun Baekhyun right?”
The pause tells Yixing that he’s got Chanyeol under his hold and even though he wants to regret saying that, at the back of his mind he’s convinced that maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad idea. He really doesn’t want more people to start fucking up Baekhyun’s life even more than it already is but his judgment relies on how much he knows those people and he knows absolutely nothing about Chanyeol other than what’s presented to him. He doesn’t know about how he fucked up in his previous school because he doesn’t ask. But Chanyeol doesn’t know a shit about Baekhyun because he refuses to tell. That’s the difference. One refuses while the other insists.
Wet pavements, cold air, and suppressed volumes greeted them as the car parks on the sidewalk. Chanyeol’s never been at this side of the city, well, he’s never been in any side of the city, at least not necessarily. He knows this is a bad idea but he’s got a good bargain for it. At least he can have a peace of his mind after this, that is, if he wakes up without a massive headache the next morning. Yixing leads him further into the street, passing by numerous cars and equally enthusiastic people, and finally stops in front of a door that’s decorated with a disturbing flashy sign that reads ‘Get Drunk and Get High’. Chanyeol takes notice of the crossed out subtext that says ‘no minors’. Chanyeol is actually surprised that they’re allowed out this time of night until Yixing told him that the school makes exception sometimes when the majority agrees.
The club is in full attendance of college students, interns and teachers alike. He saw his teacher gulping in tequila at the bar earlier. Some of his expectations got drowned in that same tequila. Nonetheless, he still follows Yixing further into the masses of dancing bodies and drowned drinks.
“Yixing, please tell me you weren’t lying when you told me you’re going to tell me everything about Byun Baekhyun.” Chanyeol yells amidst the loud music and hopes that his voice is loud enough for Yixing to hear.
“I don’t get what everything you want to know but yes I wasn’t lying.” Yixing replies in the same manner. Chanyeol notices Yixing glancing at the stage every now and then, thus he does the same, but he doesn’t get anything. Until Yixing finally stops and he does too, almost getting hit by two overly enthusiastic party girls beside him. “If it calms your shit, take a look.”
Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows, confused, but he decides to look anyway. He turns to the stage where a turntable mostly occupies the space. He looks around the stage and finds several people dancing and drinking around the turntable. An unplanned remix of KARA’s ‘Lupin’ starts booming in the speakers. He says unplanned because whoever the DJ is, he’s just randomly throwing in beats with his hands but the flow is smooth and artistic. He focuses on the DJ. He’s not so sure what he’s looking at given the flashing laser lights of green and red alike and with the DJ’s face hidden with a hoodie but he’s seen that hoodie before and that side profile is definitely familiar. He stares for a few seconds more until the DJ grabs the headphones and pulls his hoodie back, revealing his hair wet with sweat as he hangs the headphones around his ears. Chanyeol would’ve recognized him sooner if it wasn’t for the eyeliner and he feels damn cheated seeing Baekhyun behind the turntable, sporting eyeliner and black leathers, moving to the beat of his own music.
“Fucking-“
Yixing chuckles beside him.
“He’s a club DJ?!” Chanyeol would’ve thrown in some compliments like smoking hot Club DJ but he thinks it’s unnecessary given the context of his position right now. It’s not something he wants to admit but this, this is weird enough for him that he’s willing to defy that one rule he made up a week ago just to watch Baekhyun slam the beats out of the speakers. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He should be studying right now, sitting on his study table, with the lampshade on, and a few cups of coffee to keep him awake. But instead he’s here, breathing in the alcohol, feeling the sweat, taking in the colored lights and booming speakers.
“Gosh. One of the best party animal in the planet.” Yixing croons in response and starts walking. Chanyeol follows immediately, squeezing his body in between more bodies.
“Where are we going?”
“To what we came for. Poker.”
It turns out there’s a little hallway that leads to a tiny room just behind the stage where Baekhyun’s elegantly putting on a performance. Yixing had to drag Chanyeol inside because the said giant just wouldn’t take his eyes off the quote, smoking hot DJ, unquote. And this makes Yixing miserable.
“I hate it when transfer students start to grow affection towards him,”
“I don’t have a crush on him!” Chanyeol feels like he’s denying even himself. “I just think he’s interesting.”
“Yeah, lie all you want.” Yixing sighs. “You’ll get there. Eventually. Such a sad fate.”
Yixing opens the door. There’s a small room. The first people Chanyeol sees are Jongin and Sehun, already on their seats. Then he looks around and spots Kris leaning on the wall at the corner. “Jesus.” He whispers but loud enough for Yixing to hear. “You didn’t tell me he was coming.”
“Relax, he’s not gonna hurt you.” Yixing assures him. “You have your savior partying outside.”
They settle on the table and Yixing starts shuffling the cards. He figures he’s not going to get anything from Yixing about Baekhyun before this so he decides to play along. It’s just luck that he happens to know how to play poker because his previous school doesn’t really have time to set rules against the students’ after-school activities when they’re too busy balancing the finances between the amounts of damages students makes every day and the miscellaneous fees. He is curious though as to why they have this kind of activity.
So while Yixing is shuffling the cards, he asks the most unlikely person to strike a conversation with at the moment-Jongin (also because he’s seated beside him). “Hey, uh,” Jongin, looking bored as hell, turns to him. “Um, are you okay?” Soon after he finishes the sentence, he remembers Yixing’s words before during the Activity Fair and decides to dismiss the question and proceeds. “I’ve been meaning to ask, why are you playing poker?”
Jongin stares at him for a few seconds. Several times at the back of his mind Chanyeol wonders if the question ever got through Jongin but then Jongin blinks and then he probably thinks so. “For fun.” Yeah, that should explain it all. Chanyeol decides to just get through with it.
Baekhyun thinks it’s weird. And when he thinks it’s weird, it means it’s some serious bullshit since everything is weird but to think that something that should not be weird is weird for him is weird. He thinks it’s weird that when he saw Chanyeol’s bright honey locks prancing across the disco floor, he felt a little bothered. But it’s not something he has to stick his nose into so he goes back to DJ-ing, or not. He sighs, a pretty pissed off sigh, when he feels someone feeling up his ass. He turns around, a pissed glare. “Fuck off.”
“Alright, alright.” The guy says, raising his hands up. “No need to be such a bitch.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes and pulls his headphones down to wipe his sweat. He gestured to one of the other DJs present before leaving the stage so he can grab a drink. He was nearly down the stairs when he saw two guys violently grabbing each other at the side, slightly alarming the people who have moved away to a safe distance. He stopped his pace when he recognized their faces. Kris’ hands are gripping Chanyeol’s collar and Chanyeol, instead of pushing him away like what he’s supposed to do in a fight, kept his hands on the air as he talks.
“It was just a game!” Chanyeol yells and Baekhyun snorts while wondering what made Chanyeol think that he could talk Kris out of beating him up.
“Who the fuck even cares-you need a beating and you sure deserve one you son of a bitch. You guys agree with me? Do you?!” Kris yells to the crowd and immediately receives a unified response. Baekhyun feels disgusted.
“W-wait! We can talk about this. I-I’ll give all the money to you-“ Bam.
And that, my friends, is the second punch of the school year.
“How are you feeling?” Is the first thing Chanyeol hears when he finally regains consciousness, immediately followed by, “Oh wait. That was a useless question.”
Chanyeol idles for a moment, his body trying to adjust from unconsciousness and he its up slowly, feeling an immediate pain from his nose. He touches his nose softly and winces at the obvious bump. “I can’t feel my nose.”
“Don’t worry, it’s still there.”
Chanyeol raises his head and almost yells when he sees Baekhyun looking down at him from the bottom step of the stairs. “What happened? Where are my friends?”
“Whoa, you brought friends with you?”
“Wait-no. That was a mistake.” He makes a mental note to strangle Yixing in his sleep when he gets back for leaving him and practically letting Kris screw with his face. He shakes those thoughts away and focuses on the present. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t you at least appreciate my presence when I could’ve just left you on your own in here?”
Well, that makes sense. “Sorry. It’s just that…I didn’t think-“
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. Maybe it’s partially my fault your ass got owned. But didn’t I tell you earlier? To stay away from Kris?” Baekhyun asks and Chanyeol isn’t really sure if Baekhyun’s pissed or worried, or maybe even both.
“I knew that. But…I agreed to come with Yixing.”
Baekhyun tilts his head. “For what?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you agree to come with Yixing? I’m sure you had something to gain from it.”
“What makes you think so?”
“We both know the answer to that question.” Chanyeol, of course, refuses to take that as an answer. “Alright, fine. You don’t look like someone who would randomly think of partying at school nights and I know you don’t. You keep your rationality even at pressured situations, like before Kris punched you. You know he’s going to raise a fist but instead of keeping your guard on, you talked him out of it, which was bullshit by the way. You suck.” Chanyeol is amazed at the same time freaked out at how much Baekhyun has read him but then again, the only thing that interests him at the moment is Baekhyun’s soft voice. He can hear it clearer now with the absence of the noise. “So, what was it? What’s the bargain?”
Chanyeol just realized that it’s stupid to have kept the conversation until it reached this and wished that he could just slide out of it smoothly without raising questions of ulterior motives. “Can’t tell you.” Yeah, he’s sure that didn’t go smoothly, judging from the looks Baekhyun is giving him.
“Wow. You suck even more.”
Chanyeol sighs. “I was…curious.” Baekhyun raises his eyebrows. “About you.”
There was a pause on Baekhyun’s side, obviously because he himself was caught off guard. He’s used to people wanting to trespass his personal bubble, always have to dig his past and whatever they gain from it, he doesn’t give a shit but Chanyeol doesn’t seem to have any cruel intentions and that’s weird for him, that’s new, that’s a change he didn’t see coming. “Is this because I told you to stay away from me too?”
“No-I-It was before that. Your room’s in front of ours…and the flowers.” Chanyeol tries to explain, trying hard not to sound such a creep. “Yixing always refuses to tell me anything.”
Baekhyun sighs this time, as if he’s used to being in this situation, and is slowly getting tired of it. “You should’ve come to me.”
“Yixing said-“
“Yixing this, Yixing that. Why would you listen to him? We’re not even friends. I don’t know what he’s doing but really, I don’t give a fuck. Zero fuck. If you have something you want to tell me, come at me face to face. I’m tired of people sprouting rumors just because of that bullshit Yixing is spreading.”
Chanyeol blinks. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that-I don’t really-no, wait, fuck, just, really sorry-“
Baekhyun laughs, and for a short moment, the world stops for Chanyeol. “I’m not mad. Just tired. But, um, Chanyeol,”
Chanyeol waits for him to continue and in those short seconds, he’s able to relax.
“When I told you to stay away from me, I meant it.”
His supposed relaxation just…flew right out of the window. Then he wonders that what Baekhyun probably meant by coming at him face to face was that so he could shut them away face to face.
He’s not so sure how he got back to his room given that the last thing he remembers is passing out in the streets but when he regains consciousness for the second time, the words that greeted him are, “He’s Kris’ ex.” And how the hell is he supposed to process that when his mind is only starting back up? He groans in pain when he feels a slight sting at the corner of his head and presses a hand on it as he blinks his eyes open while sitting up slowly. From the corner of his eyes, beside his bed, he sees Yixing leaning on the back of his computer seat, looking at him. He checks the time-it’s already past lunch time.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Chanyeol mumbles sarcastically, voice hoarse and continues, “Who’s Kris’ ex?”
“Baekhyun.” Oh. Chanyeol should’ve seen that coming. “They broke up before summer started. You should’ve taken a hint from those flowers and that incident at the cafeteria. Really. Where’s your logic? Common sense? You flushed them in the toilet?”
Chanyeol raises a hand at him. “Can’t you at least just…take a break from insulting me for once? I’m injured!”
“Naw, your nose is injured. Your mind, on the other hand, isn’t.” Yixing says nonchalantly. He glides his computer seat across the room and stops in front of his drawer. He pulls out a box of Advil and throws them at Chanyeol. “Alright. So…the flowers are because Kris is obsessed with him.” He snorts. “Who wouldn’t with that ass?” Chanyeol swallows a few pills and listens. “Baekhyun, on the other hand, really wants to shoot an arrow on Kris’ head.”
“How did they break up?”
“Sorry. I think you should ask Baekhyun about that. That’s already too personal.”
“I feel cheated.”
“You really shouldn’t bother. I mean, what will you get with knowing Baekhyun’s life story? His life isn’t filled with rainbows and unicorns. It is, by every means, not inspiring at all.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t know. You’re not friends, right? Why should that stop me from wanting to be friends with him?”
“Is that what he told you?” Yixing snorts. “Fine. I don’t give a crap anyway. I did give warnings though. So, when you find yourself watching his suicide video, don’t come running to me.”
Chanyeol didn’t expect he’ll see Baekhyun again after that incident so when he found the said boy standing in front of their room after he’s opened the door, he almost stumbled back in surprise, giving Baekhyun a good giggle due to his unusual reaction. At that time, Chanyeol didn’t want to do anything but pull Baekhyun into his arms and hug him tightly so he can keep on giggling so innocently even when his whole persona says otherwise.
“You’re funny.” Baekhyun tells him with a sly grin. “Is Yixing there?”
Chanyeol turns to Yixing and Baekhyun skips to where Yixing is sitting comfortably on his computer chair. Baekhyun snatches Yixing’s headphones, forcing the latter to turn to him. “Hey!” Yixing yells in anger.
“I need to borrow your notes.”
“You couldn’t wait?”
“Until you’re done with your game? No. That’d be two more hours.” Baekhyun replies, raising up two fingers like a peace sign.
Yixing rolls his eyes. He pushes his computer seat and stops near his bed where his bag is resting and pulls up two notebooks. He throws it to Baekhyun while sliding back to his computer table where Baekhyun throws his headphones back after.
“There. Get your ass out of here,” Yixing accidentally glances to Chanyeol who’s standing awkwardly near the door, eyes fixed on Baekhyun who’s scanning the notes. “On second thought, no never mind, don’t mind me.”
Baekhyun turns around, two notebooks on hand, and proceeds to leave when he realizes something. He turns to Chanyeol who’s standing by the door. “Do you want to come with me?”
Chanyeol didn’t see that coming. “Huh?”
“You’re smart, right?”
“I-I guess?”
Baekhyun smiles. “Good. That means you can explain these to me. I was absent during the first two days. I wouldn’t really understand the lesson tomorrow. I figured you could explain these to me-“
“Okay!” Baekhyun blinks at him. “I’ll explain them to you!”
“Great…thanks.” Baekhyun says, even though he’s slightly weirded by Chanyeol’s sudden enthusiasm.
This was not part of plan, Chanyeol resents.
It’s past dinner so there only a few students left at the library. The library is too big that even though there are still others around, Chanyeol feels alone. But it doesn’t matter because Baekhyun’s there and there was no way of foreseeing this moment to come. He doesn’t actually dread for this but everybody knows he’s curious about the boy so given the chance to be alone with him makes him feel happy. There’s just something about how Baekhyun approaches people and that smile he gives them afterwards that always pulls him into curiosity no matter what other people say about him. He wants to know what is true of Byun Baekhyun and what is not. It’s crazy but that’s just how it is.
“So, which means, that in the adipose tissue, the stored fats or the triglycerides are converted into Fatty Acids and then it becomes CoA. The CoA then proceeds to the Kreb’s cycle to produce energy while the excess fats will be converted into ketone bodies, which makes the blood acidic.” Chanyeol explains eloquently referring to Yixing’s notes, trying to sound as simple as he can be so it wouldn’t be hard for Baekhyun to understand. Baekhyun, on the other hand, finds Chanyeol’s serious face interesting to watch. “You get it?” Chanyeol asks, looking up. Baekhyun nods in response. “So, as a follow-up question, what are the ketone bodies then?”
Baekhyun leans on his seat with a smirk. “Easy. Acetone. Aceto Acetate. And Beta-hydroxybutyrate.”
“Good.” Chanyeol sighs and looks down at the notebook.
“You’re really smart, Chanyeol.” Baekhyun says out of the blue, making Chanyeol feel a bit disconcerted though he admits that receiving a compliment from Baekhyun is quite nice. “I wonder what it’s like to be you. I’ve always wanted to be someone else.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Baekhyun repeats. “It’s exhausting being me. I want to know what it feels like when other people smile at you wholeheartedly, what if feels like to be judged by no one, to have a clean reputation.”
“You’re fine the way you are.”
Baekhyun shakes his head, smirking. “You don’t know me that well.”
“Maybe. But I can at least see the good in you.”
“Sometimes the judgment of many outweighs the judgment of one.”
“It depends on who’s one. People also say a lot of bad things about me. I wasn’t particularly the best student in my previous school but still, my friends treat me normally.”
“That’s where our differences lie,” Baekhyun says softly, looking down at the pen he’s fiddling with, and then he sighs. “I don’t have friends.”
Chanyeol considers how sad that sounds, especially coming from someone like Byun Baekhyun.
“Of course you do.” Chanyeol knows he does because he’s one of them, or at least he wants to be.
“No, I don’t.” Baekhyun insists as his eyes continue to longer on Chanyeol’s, as if they’re telling him that what Baekhyun couldn’t say. Chanyeol sees something but fairly could not read it. His father has always reminded of him about something like that when he was a kid; “You, boy, have a heart that can see but as intelligent and bright your mind is, your heart cannot read.” And he wondered then what he meant but even though he thought it was confusing and peculiar coming from his dad, he replied, “Of course, dad. A heart cannot read.” He was proud of his answer, to the point of bragging even, but the look his dad has given him continued to bother him even until now. And he thinks that maybe it has something to do with the present, at where he is now. Maybe he is a bit socially dysfunctional. He doesn’t get what Baekhyun is trying to tell him even when the brunette’s eyes are trying to communicate.
Chanyeol snaps back when he notices he is now staring at the brunette’s hair. Baekhyun seemed to have completely dropped the subject when he decided to get back with the notes. However, Chanyeol thought it needed at least a closure. “It doesn’t have to be in plural form.” He said.
Baekhyun looks up at him. “What?”
“A friend,” Chanyeol quickly added. “You can just have one friend and it will still be okay.”
Baekhyun doesn’t give him a reply. He just stared at Chanyeol while wondering if he can bend his previous claim.
It turns out Baekhyun is the smartest student in their class. “I think I made a fool of myself last night. He must hate me. I treated him like he was an idiot.” Chanyeol mumbles during lunch time after witnessing Baekhyun’s superb memory skills at Geology class and to think Baekhyun wasn’t even paying that much attention because (no offense) Geology is boring and so is the teacher.
Yixing rolls his eyes and decides to busy himself with the food in front of him. The rest of his friends started coming one by one, doing what they normally do, like Kyungsoo dragging a sleepy Kai on his chair. Sehun, overhearing Chanyeol’s mini-monologue a while ago had his eyes on him as soon as he sat. “So, Chanyeol hyung, you really didn’t know Baekhyun’s like…one of the smartest asshole in this school?” He asks as he slowly unwraps his burger.
“How would I know?” Chanyeol responded while clawing his hair.
Sehun shrugged. “Everybody knows. It’s what the honor students keep bitching about in Underground. They keep on saying he shouldn’t even be labeled as one because he is, by no means, a model student.” Chanyeol doesn’t really get how this information can help him but he was able to at least pick up what might be lacking in his social abilities. “Which is true in so many ways, by the way.” Sehun quickly adds.
“I really should sign up for that Underground stuff.” Chanyeol mumbles with a sigh.
“No, don’t,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “You seem to be really into him. You might not like what students write about him there.”
Chanyeol questions the thought in his mind. What would the students write about him there? The curiosity is slowly eating his moral, slowly pulling him down hell that if he didn’t crawl back out immediately, it’s going to consume him. And it’s not really what he came here for. He came here for a peace of mind, for his own atonement, for a chance to change. But with Baekhyun, he’s like living in a chess game and no matter what move he makes and which pawn he uses, he ends up with a checkmate, like how he always ends up with wanting to know more about someone who probably couldn’t care less about him.
“Oh, let him be. Guy’s curious,” Yixing says before munching some cucumbers. Chanyeol snarls. He never really liked cucumber.
“That’s odd,” Yixing turns to Chanyeol who seem to have something in mind. “You were so annoyed about my curiosity but now you’re telling me to sign up for that stuff so I could feed my curiosity?” Chanyeol continues, dictating the words slowly as to emphasize his confusion while trying to logically make sense of it in his head.
“You’re already far into hell, might as well do something to make you run away,” was Yixing’s comeback and surprisingly, Chanyeol couldn’t think much of an argument against it. “Besides, I’d like to see you scared-“
Yixing was interrupted with a sudden clank at the center of the table and they all (except for Sehun) look up to Baekhyun who’s already grinding his teeth while staring down at Sehun, who, as understandable as it looks, appears to be intimidated. “You’re in my chair.” Such a short phrase but great impact, Chanyeol thinks, though most likely he has no idea what he’s supposed to be seeing in this kind of situation.
Sehun makes a pissed off face but obviously trying to suck it in as to not appear so obvious but after a few seconds, after Baekhyun added with “Nobody asked you to sit here,” Sehun stands up to leave and Chanyeol watches his fist clench. Baekhyun takes his seat with grin on his face. For a while, the table was silent and all Chanyeol did was glance at each of their faces, imagining who would throw a bomb at Baekhyun first and what the consequences would be but as he analyzed it further, he guessed that this stuff happens every once in a while that they’re already exhausted with the redundancy.
Kyungsoo drops his spoon and sighs exasperatingly. “You’re a jerk,”
Baekhyun stares at him. “You knew I would do that but you didn’t give him a head’s up. Who’s a jerk now?”
“No, you have a problem,” Kyungsoo abruptly stands up. “I don’t know Baekhyun. I just-I’m tired of trying to make excuses for you.”
Yixing perks up. “Kyungsoo.”
“Not everyone’s going to deal with your shit. Either you do something about your problem or you lose everyone who is still willing to back you up,”
“He slept with Luhan,”
“You knew that was inevitable. You’ve seen it coming.”
“After Luhan slept with Kris,” Baekhyun retorts. “Doesn’t sound so nice now, does it? Don’t tell me he has no idea. I fucking ran to him that night, practically cried for hours but what did he do? The next morning, Luhan comes up to him, explains and unfortunately, kid couldn’t keep his libido in check and voila.”
“He said he was sorry!”
“Well, I’m sorry if I can’t forgive so easily like you do,” Baekhyun pushes his chair away and stands up to leave with Yixing’s exhausted sigh the last thing he hears.
<< >>
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol, Kris/Baekhyun, side!Luhan/Kris
Genre: Romance, Drama, University!AU
Word Count: 5k+
Summary: Not everyone can dismiss curiosity easily, is what Chanyeol wants to tell Yixing, because the whole morning, he couldn’t stop thinking about the man who lives behind the mysterious door.
Chanyeol’s back at the dorm by dinner. The first thing he sees is Yixing awkwardly clicking the mouse of his computer, headphones on, completely unbothered by his presence. Remembering the scene he caused earlier makes him infuriated with Yixing’s behavior. He walks to his side and abruptly pulls Yixing’s earphones out of his head. Yixing turns to him with a surprised glare. “Hey!”
“Don’t ignore me.”
“I’m not ignoring you. I was listening to some music!”
Chanyeol snorts and lifts the end of the headphones’ cord. “You should’ve at least plugged it in.” He says facetiously. He throws the earphones back to Yixing before walking to his bed, sinking on to the mattress with a tired sigh and slowly, his eyes close. Some unexpected turn of events drained his energy. He opens his eyes to stare at the ceiling and there’s a mental flashback of Baekhyun’s face and his eyes getting uncovered with the sudden wind hitting his fringe. He looked hangover, his eyes are exhausted, but somehow at that time he was glowing. And Chanyeol doesn’t really know why he sees it that way. “Hey Yixing, are you still not going to tell me anything?”
Chanyeol hears Yixing turning his computer seat to him. “I told you. You don’t have to know. I’m pretty sure you can get through college without having to get involved with Byun Baekhyun and Kris Wu.”
“You’re his friend right?” Chanyeol says. “You yelled at him earlier.”
“Who cares? Even a cat can yell at him. We’re not exactly close-bonded.”
Chanyeol snorts at how thin the lines to being a lie that is. “You say that but you’re bothered when someone asks about him. You say you don’t care, that Baekhyun is just some troublemaker, but you go through a lot of efforts to keep people from being too interested in him.” He sits up slowly and sees Yixing’s puzzled expression. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
Yixing stands up, subtly trying to avoid the subject, and walks to his bed to grab his phone. “Believe anything you want. I still have no reason to tell you what you want to know.”
“I almost died!” Chanyeol argues, his patience slowly growing thinner. “I’m pretty sure Kris’ fist was all fired up to beat the shit out of me and then here comes Baekhyun to the rescue who practically saved my life with only two damn sentences!”
Yixing reads the message on his phone before turning to Chanyeol. “Alright. I’m going to tell you everything if I don’t get interrupted before I finish this sente-“
The door slams open, revealing Sehun who’s panting, and Chanyeol falls back down to the bed with an angry groan. Yixing smirks in victory. Sehun glanced at them both with a confused expression. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. Don’t mind him.”
“I should’ve locked that door.” Chanyeol murmurs.
Sehun welcomes himself inside. “Hey, poker night. The car’s downstairs with Jongin.”
“Please tell me Jongin’s not driving.”
“Of course not. I am.”
Yixing laughs. “Dream on.” He takes his wallet and phone, ready to leave when Sehun refuses to get out of the way. “Sehun.”
“Listen. There is a reason why I came here to get you instead of just texting you.”
“Oh God.”
“Baekhyun’s back, right? Which means Kris is back in the club. Dude, he’s going to own our asses tonight.”
“So? We never won against him anyway. No big deal.”
“That’s because we’re intimidated too much. Jongin said he’s not going anywhere with his car if we don’t find someone on Kris’ league to come with us tonight.”
“What’s got Jongin’s pants?”
“Beats me.”
“Alright. Let’s say this shit is a good idea. Where the hell are we going to find quote, someone on Kris’ league to come with us tonight, unquote?”
Sehun makes a subtle glance at Chanyeol who’s lazily lying on the bed and Yixing nearly chokes on humid air. He pulls Sehun with him outside and closes the door. “Are you crazy? We can’t bring him!”
“Think about it. Kris is there. Baekhyun’s there. If Chanyeol is with us, he practically wouldn’t be able to raise a fist on any of us. Baekhyun helped him earlier. He’s going to help him again this time.”
Yixing absolutely, extremely, enormously hates it when Sehun starts making sense because when Sehun starts to make sense, it means whatever crap he’s spouting is the only bright idea in the world any human can think of at the moment. Yixing half-heartedly opens the door and peeks inside, waiting for a few moments before finally opening his mouth to speak. “Chanyeol, wanna come with us?”
“No. Poker. Clubbing. No. I have to study.”
Yixing retreats back but Sehun is making this face. So Yixing, again, half-heartedly walks back inside the room. “Chanyeol-“
“No.”
Yixing groans. “Fine. You want to know everything about Byun Baekhyun right?”
The pause tells Yixing that he’s got Chanyeol under his hold and even though he wants to regret saying that, at the back of his mind he’s convinced that maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad idea. He really doesn’t want more people to start fucking up Baekhyun’s life even more than it already is but his judgment relies on how much he knows those people and he knows absolutely nothing about Chanyeol other than what’s presented to him. He doesn’t know about how he fucked up in his previous school because he doesn’t ask. But Chanyeol doesn’t know a shit about Baekhyun because he refuses to tell. That’s the difference. One refuses while the other insists.
Wet pavements, cold air, and suppressed volumes greeted them as the car parks on the sidewalk. Chanyeol’s never been at this side of the city, well, he’s never been in any side of the city, at least not necessarily. He knows this is a bad idea but he’s got a good bargain for it. At least he can have a peace of his mind after this, that is, if he wakes up without a massive headache the next morning. Yixing leads him further into the street, passing by numerous cars and equally enthusiastic people, and finally stops in front of a door that’s decorated with a disturbing flashy sign that reads ‘Get Drunk and Get High’. Chanyeol takes notice of the crossed out subtext that says ‘no minors’. Chanyeol is actually surprised that they’re allowed out this time of night until Yixing told him that the school makes exception sometimes when the majority agrees.
The club is in full attendance of college students, interns and teachers alike. He saw his teacher gulping in tequila at the bar earlier. Some of his expectations got drowned in that same tequila. Nonetheless, he still follows Yixing further into the masses of dancing bodies and drowned drinks.
“Yixing, please tell me you weren’t lying when you told me you’re going to tell me everything about Byun Baekhyun.” Chanyeol yells amidst the loud music and hopes that his voice is loud enough for Yixing to hear.
“I don’t get what everything you want to know but yes I wasn’t lying.” Yixing replies in the same manner. Chanyeol notices Yixing glancing at the stage every now and then, thus he does the same, but he doesn’t get anything. Until Yixing finally stops and he does too, almost getting hit by two overly enthusiastic party girls beside him. “If it calms your shit, take a look.”
Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows, confused, but he decides to look anyway. He turns to the stage where a turntable mostly occupies the space. He looks around the stage and finds several people dancing and drinking around the turntable. An unplanned remix of KARA’s ‘Lupin’ starts booming in the speakers. He says unplanned because whoever the DJ is, he’s just randomly throwing in beats with his hands but the flow is smooth and artistic. He focuses on the DJ. He’s not so sure what he’s looking at given the flashing laser lights of green and red alike and with the DJ’s face hidden with a hoodie but he’s seen that hoodie before and that side profile is definitely familiar. He stares for a few seconds more until the DJ grabs the headphones and pulls his hoodie back, revealing his hair wet with sweat as he hangs the headphones around his ears. Chanyeol would’ve recognized him sooner if it wasn’t for the eyeliner and he feels damn cheated seeing Baekhyun behind the turntable, sporting eyeliner and black leathers, moving to the beat of his own music.
“Fucking-“
Yixing chuckles beside him.
“He’s a club DJ?!” Chanyeol would’ve thrown in some compliments like smoking hot Club DJ but he thinks it’s unnecessary given the context of his position right now. It’s not something he wants to admit but this, this is weird enough for him that he’s willing to defy that one rule he made up a week ago just to watch Baekhyun slam the beats out of the speakers. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He should be studying right now, sitting on his study table, with the lampshade on, and a few cups of coffee to keep him awake. But instead he’s here, breathing in the alcohol, feeling the sweat, taking in the colored lights and booming speakers.
“Gosh. One of the best party animal in the planet.” Yixing croons in response and starts walking. Chanyeol follows immediately, squeezing his body in between more bodies.
“Where are we going?”
“To what we came for. Poker.”
It turns out there’s a little hallway that leads to a tiny room just behind the stage where Baekhyun’s elegantly putting on a performance. Yixing had to drag Chanyeol inside because the said giant just wouldn’t take his eyes off the quote, smoking hot DJ, unquote. And this makes Yixing miserable.
“I hate it when transfer students start to grow affection towards him,”
“I don’t have a crush on him!” Chanyeol feels like he’s denying even himself. “I just think he’s interesting.”
“Yeah, lie all you want.” Yixing sighs. “You’ll get there. Eventually. Such a sad fate.”
Yixing opens the door. There’s a small room. The first people Chanyeol sees are Jongin and Sehun, already on their seats. Then he looks around and spots Kris leaning on the wall at the corner. “Jesus.” He whispers but loud enough for Yixing to hear. “You didn’t tell me he was coming.”
“Relax, he’s not gonna hurt you.” Yixing assures him. “You have your savior partying outside.”
They settle on the table and Yixing starts shuffling the cards. He figures he’s not going to get anything from Yixing about Baekhyun before this so he decides to play along. It’s just luck that he happens to know how to play poker because his previous school doesn’t really have time to set rules against the students’ after-school activities when they’re too busy balancing the finances between the amounts of damages students makes every day and the miscellaneous fees. He is curious though as to why they have this kind of activity.
So while Yixing is shuffling the cards, he asks the most unlikely person to strike a conversation with at the moment-Jongin (also because he’s seated beside him). “Hey, uh,” Jongin, looking bored as hell, turns to him. “Um, are you okay?” Soon after he finishes the sentence, he remembers Yixing’s words before during the Activity Fair and decides to dismiss the question and proceeds. “I’ve been meaning to ask, why are you playing poker?”
Jongin stares at him for a few seconds. Several times at the back of his mind Chanyeol wonders if the question ever got through Jongin but then Jongin blinks and then he probably thinks so. “For fun.” Yeah, that should explain it all. Chanyeol decides to just get through with it.
Baekhyun thinks it’s weird. And when he thinks it’s weird, it means it’s some serious bullshit since everything is weird but to think that something that should not be weird is weird for him is weird. He thinks it’s weird that when he saw Chanyeol’s bright honey locks prancing across the disco floor, he felt a little bothered. But it’s not something he has to stick his nose into so he goes back to DJ-ing, or not. He sighs, a pretty pissed off sigh, when he feels someone feeling up his ass. He turns around, a pissed glare. “Fuck off.”
“Alright, alright.” The guy says, raising his hands up. “No need to be such a bitch.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes and pulls his headphones down to wipe his sweat. He gestured to one of the other DJs present before leaving the stage so he can grab a drink. He was nearly down the stairs when he saw two guys violently grabbing each other at the side, slightly alarming the people who have moved away to a safe distance. He stopped his pace when he recognized their faces. Kris’ hands are gripping Chanyeol’s collar and Chanyeol, instead of pushing him away like what he’s supposed to do in a fight, kept his hands on the air as he talks.
“It was just a game!” Chanyeol yells and Baekhyun snorts while wondering what made Chanyeol think that he could talk Kris out of beating him up.
“Who the fuck even cares-you need a beating and you sure deserve one you son of a bitch. You guys agree with me? Do you?!” Kris yells to the crowd and immediately receives a unified response. Baekhyun feels disgusted.
“W-wait! We can talk about this. I-I’ll give all the money to you-“ Bam.
And that, my friends, is the second punch of the school year.
“How are you feeling?” Is the first thing Chanyeol hears when he finally regains consciousness, immediately followed by, “Oh wait. That was a useless question.”
Chanyeol idles for a moment, his body trying to adjust from unconsciousness and he its up slowly, feeling an immediate pain from his nose. He touches his nose softly and winces at the obvious bump. “I can’t feel my nose.”
“Don’t worry, it’s still there.”
Chanyeol raises his head and almost yells when he sees Baekhyun looking down at him from the bottom step of the stairs. “What happened? Where are my friends?”
“Whoa, you brought friends with you?”
“Wait-no. That was a mistake.” He makes a mental note to strangle Yixing in his sleep when he gets back for leaving him and practically letting Kris screw with his face. He shakes those thoughts away and focuses on the present. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t you at least appreciate my presence when I could’ve just left you on your own in here?”
Well, that makes sense. “Sorry. It’s just that…I didn’t think-“
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. Maybe it’s partially my fault your ass got owned. But didn’t I tell you earlier? To stay away from Kris?” Baekhyun asks and Chanyeol isn’t really sure if Baekhyun’s pissed or worried, or maybe even both.
“I knew that. But…I agreed to come with Yixing.”
Baekhyun tilts his head. “For what?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you agree to come with Yixing? I’m sure you had something to gain from it.”
“What makes you think so?”
“We both know the answer to that question.” Chanyeol, of course, refuses to take that as an answer. “Alright, fine. You don’t look like someone who would randomly think of partying at school nights and I know you don’t. You keep your rationality even at pressured situations, like before Kris punched you. You know he’s going to raise a fist but instead of keeping your guard on, you talked him out of it, which was bullshit by the way. You suck.” Chanyeol is amazed at the same time freaked out at how much Baekhyun has read him but then again, the only thing that interests him at the moment is Baekhyun’s soft voice. He can hear it clearer now with the absence of the noise. “So, what was it? What’s the bargain?”
Chanyeol just realized that it’s stupid to have kept the conversation until it reached this and wished that he could just slide out of it smoothly without raising questions of ulterior motives. “Can’t tell you.” Yeah, he’s sure that didn’t go smoothly, judging from the looks Baekhyun is giving him.
“Wow. You suck even more.”
Chanyeol sighs. “I was…curious.” Baekhyun raises his eyebrows. “About you.”
There was a pause on Baekhyun’s side, obviously because he himself was caught off guard. He’s used to people wanting to trespass his personal bubble, always have to dig his past and whatever they gain from it, he doesn’t give a shit but Chanyeol doesn’t seem to have any cruel intentions and that’s weird for him, that’s new, that’s a change he didn’t see coming. “Is this because I told you to stay away from me too?”
“No-I-It was before that. Your room’s in front of ours…and the flowers.” Chanyeol tries to explain, trying hard not to sound such a creep. “Yixing always refuses to tell me anything.”
Baekhyun sighs this time, as if he’s used to being in this situation, and is slowly getting tired of it. “You should’ve come to me.”
“Yixing said-“
“Yixing this, Yixing that. Why would you listen to him? We’re not even friends. I don’t know what he’s doing but really, I don’t give a fuck. Zero fuck. If you have something you want to tell me, come at me face to face. I’m tired of people sprouting rumors just because of that bullshit Yixing is spreading.”
Chanyeol blinks. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that-I don’t really-no, wait, fuck, just, really sorry-“
Baekhyun laughs, and for a short moment, the world stops for Chanyeol. “I’m not mad. Just tired. But, um, Chanyeol,”
Chanyeol waits for him to continue and in those short seconds, he’s able to relax.
“When I told you to stay away from me, I meant it.”
His supposed relaxation just…flew right out of the window. Then he wonders that what Baekhyun probably meant by coming at him face to face was that so he could shut them away face to face.
He’s not so sure how he got back to his room given that the last thing he remembers is passing out in the streets but when he regains consciousness for the second time, the words that greeted him are, “He’s Kris’ ex.” And how the hell is he supposed to process that when his mind is only starting back up? He groans in pain when he feels a slight sting at the corner of his head and presses a hand on it as he blinks his eyes open while sitting up slowly. From the corner of his eyes, beside his bed, he sees Yixing leaning on the back of his computer seat, looking at him. He checks the time-it’s already past lunch time.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Chanyeol mumbles sarcastically, voice hoarse and continues, “Who’s Kris’ ex?”
“Baekhyun.” Oh. Chanyeol should’ve seen that coming. “They broke up before summer started. You should’ve taken a hint from those flowers and that incident at the cafeteria. Really. Where’s your logic? Common sense? You flushed them in the toilet?”
Chanyeol raises a hand at him. “Can’t you at least just…take a break from insulting me for once? I’m injured!”
“Naw, your nose is injured. Your mind, on the other hand, isn’t.” Yixing says nonchalantly. He glides his computer seat across the room and stops in front of his drawer. He pulls out a box of Advil and throws them at Chanyeol. “Alright. So…the flowers are because Kris is obsessed with him.” He snorts. “Who wouldn’t with that ass?” Chanyeol swallows a few pills and listens. “Baekhyun, on the other hand, really wants to shoot an arrow on Kris’ head.”
“How did they break up?”
“Sorry. I think you should ask Baekhyun about that. That’s already too personal.”
“I feel cheated.”
“You really shouldn’t bother. I mean, what will you get with knowing Baekhyun’s life story? His life isn’t filled with rainbows and unicorns. It is, by every means, not inspiring at all.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t know. You’re not friends, right? Why should that stop me from wanting to be friends with him?”
“Is that what he told you?” Yixing snorts. “Fine. I don’t give a crap anyway. I did give warnings though. So, when you find yourself watching his suicide video, don’t come running to me.”
Chanyeol didn’t expect he’ll see Baekhyun again after that incident so when he found the said boy standing in front of their room after he’s opened the door, he almost stumbled back in surprise, giving Baekhyun a good giggle due to his unusual reaction. At that time, Chanyeol didn’t want to do anything but pull Baekhyun into his arms and hug him tightly so he can keep on giggling so innocently even when his whole persona says otherwise.
“You’re funny.” Baekhyun tells him with a sly grin. “Is Yixing there?”
Chanyeol turns to Yixing and Baekhyun skips to where Yixing is sitting comfortably on his computer chair. Baekhyun snatches Yixing’s headphones, forcing the latter to turn to him. “Hey!” Yixing yells in anger.
“I need to borrow your notes.”
“You couldn’t wait?”
“Until you’re done with your game? No. That’d be two more hours.” Baekhyun replies, raising up two fingers like a peace sign.
Yixing rolls his eyes. He pushes his computer seat and stops near his bed where his bag is resting and pulls up two notebooks. He throws it to Baekhyun while sliding back to his computer table where Baekhyun throws his headphones back after.
“There. Get your ass out of here,” Yixing accidentally glances to Chanyeol who’s standing awkwardly near the door, eyes fixed on Baekhyun who’s scanning the notes. “On second thought, no never mind, don’t mind me.”
Baekhyun turns around, two notebooks on hand, and proceeds to leave when he realizes something. He turns to Chanyeol who’s standing by the door. “Do you want to come with me?”
Chanyeol didn’t see that coming. “Huh?”
“You’re smart, right?”
“I-I guess?”
Baekhyun smiles. “Good. That means you can explain these to me. I was absent during the first two days. I wouldn’t really understand the lesson tomorrow. I figured you could explain these to me-“
“Okay!” Baekhyun blinks at him. “I’ll explain them to you!”
“Great…thanks.” Baekhyun says, even though he’s slightly weirded by Chanyeol’s sudden enthusiasm.
This was not part of plan, Chanyeol resents.
It’s past dinner so there only a few students left at the library. The library is too big that even though there are still others around, Chanyeol feels alone. But it doesn’t matter because Baekhyun’s there and there was no way of foreseeing this moment to come. He doesn’t actually dread for this but everybody knows he’s curious about the boy so given the chance to be alone with him makes him feel happy. There’s just something about how Baekhyun approaches people and that smile he gives them afterwards that always pulls him into curiosity no matter what other people say about him. He wants to know what is true of Byun Baekhyun and what is not. It’s crazy but that’s just how it is.
“So, which means, that in the adipose tissue, the stored fats or the triglycerides are converted into Fatty Acids and then it becomes CoA. The CoA then proceeds to the Kreb’s cycle to produce energy while the excess fats will be converted into ketone bodies, which makes the blood acidic.” Chanyeol explains eloquently referring to Yixing’s notes, trying to sound as simple as he can be so it wouldn’t be hard for Baekhyun to understand. Baekhyun, on the other hand, finds Chanyeol’s serious face interesting to watch. “You get it?” Chanyeol asks, looking up. Baekhyun nods in response. “So, as a follow-up question, what are the ketone bodies then?”
Baekhyun leans on his seat with a smirk. “Easy. Acetone. Aceto Acetate. And Beta-hydroxybutyrate.”
“Good.” Chanyeol sighs and looks down at the notebook.
“You’re really smart, Chanyeol.” Baekhyun says out of the blue, making Chanyeol feel a bit disconcerted though he admits that receiving a compliment from Baekhyun is quite nice. “I wonder what it’s like to be you. I’ve always wanted to be someone else.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Baekhyun repeats. “It’s exhausting being me. I want to know what it feels like when other people smile at you wholeheartedly, what if feels like to be judged by no one, to have a clean reputation.”
“You’re fine the way you are.”
Baekhyun shakes his head, smirking. “You don’t know me that well.”
“Maybe. But I can at least see the good in you.”
“Sometimes the judgment of many outweighs the judgment of one.”
“It depends on who’s one. People also say a lot of bad things about me. I wasn’t particularly the best student in my previous school but still, my friends treat me normally.”
“That’s where our differences lie,” Baekhyun says softly, looking down at the pen he’s fiddling with, and then he sighs. “I don’t have friends.”
Chanyeol considers how sad that sounds, especially coming from someone like Byun Baekhyun.
“Of course you do.” Chanyeol knows he does because he’s one of them, or at least he wants to be.
“No, I don’t.” Baekhyun insists as his eyes continue to longer on Chanyeol’s, as if they’re telling him that what Baekhyun couldn’t say. Chanyeol sees something but fairly could not read it. His father has always reminded of him about something like that when he was a kid; “You, boy, have a heart that can see but as intelligent and bright your mind is, your heart cannot read.” And he wondered then what he meant but even though he thought it was confusing and peculiar coming from his dad, he replied, “Of course, dad. A heart cannot read.” He was proud of his answer, to the point of bragging even, but the look his dad has given him continued to bother him even until now. And he thinks that maybe it has something to do with the present, at where he is now. Maybe he is a bit socially dysfunctional. He doesn’t get what Baekhyun is trying to tell him even when the brunette’s eyes are trying to communicate.
Chanyeol snaps back when he notices he is now staring at the brunette’s hair. Baekhyun seemed to have completely dropped the subject when he decided to get back with the notes. However, Chanyeol thought it needed at least a closure. “It doesn’t have to be in plural form.” He said.
Baekhyun looks up at him. “What?”
“A friend,” Chanyeol quickly added. “You can just have one friend and it will still be okay.”
Baekhyun doesn’t give him a reply. He just stared at Chanyeol while wondering if he can bend his previous claim.
It turns out Baekhyun is the smartest student in their class. “I think I made a fool of myself last night. He must hate me. I treated him like he was an idiot.” Chanyeol mumbles during lunch time after witnessing Baekhyun’s superb memory skills at Geology class and to think Baekhyun wasn’t even paying that much attention because (no offense) Geology is boring and so is the teacher.
Yixing rolls his eyes and decides to busy himself with the food in front of him. The rest of his friends started coming one by one, doing what they normally do, like Kyungsoo dragging a sleepy Kai on his chair. Sehun, overhearing Chanyeol’s mini-monologue a while ago had his eyes on him as soon as he sat. “So, Chanyeol hyung, you really didn’t know Baekhyun’s like…one of the smartest asshole in this school?” He asks as he slowly unwraps his burger.
“How would I know?” Chanyeol responded while clawing his hair.
Sehun shrugged. “Everybody knows. It’s what the honor students keep bitching about in Underground. They keep on saying he shouldn’t even be labeled as one because he is, by no means, a model student.” Chanyeol doesn’t really get how this information can help him but he was able to at least pick up what might be lacking in his social abilities. “Which is true in so many ways, by the way.” Sehun quickly adds.
“I really should sign up for that Underground stuff.” Chanyeol mumbles with a sigh.
“No, don’t,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “You seem to be really into him. You might not like what students write about him there.”
Chanyeol questions the thought in his mind. What would the students write about him there? The curiosity is slowly eating his moral, slowly pulling him down hell that if he didn’t crawl back out immediately, it’s going to consume him. And it’s not really what he came here for. He came here for a peace of mind, for his own atonement, for a chance to change. But with Baekhyun, he’s like living in a chess game and no matter what move he makes and which pawn he uses, he ends up with a checkmate, like how he always ends up with wanting to know more about someone who probably couldn’t care less about him.
“Oh, let him be. Guy’s curious,” Yixing says before munching some cucumbers. Chanyeol snarls. He never really liked cucumber.
“That’s odd,” Yixing turns to Chanyeol who seem to have something in mind. “You were so annoyed about my curiosity but now you’re telling me to sign up for that stuff so I could feed my curiosity?” Chanyeol continues, dictating the words slowly as to emphasize his confusion while trying to logically make sense of it in his head.
“You’re already far into hell, might as well do something to make you run away,” was Yixing’s comeback and surprisingly, Chanyeol couldn’t think much of an argument against it. “Besides, I’d like to see you scared-“
Yixing was interrupted with a sudden clank at the center of the table and they all (except for Sehun) look up to Baekhyun who’s already grinding his teeth while staring down at Sehun, who, as understandable as it looks, appears to be intimidated. “You’re in my chair.” Such a short phrase but great impact, Chanyeol thinks, though most likely he has no idea what he’s supposed to be seeing in this kind of situation.
Sehun makes a pissed off face but obviously trying to suck it in as to not appear so obvious but after a few seconds, after Baekhyun added with “Nobody asked you to sit here,” Sehun stands up to leave and Chanyeol watches his fist clench. Baekhyun takes his seat with grin on his face. For a while, the table was silent and all Chanyeol did was glance at each of their faces, imagining who would throw a bomb at Baekhyun first and what the consequences would be but as he analyzed it further, he guessed that this stuff happens every once in a while that they’re already exhausted with the redundancy.
Kyungsoo drops his spoon and sighs exasperatingly. “You’re a jerk,”
Baekhyun stares at him. “You knew I would do that but you didn’t give him a head’s up. Who’s a jerk now?”
“No, you have a problem,” Kyungsoo abruptly stands up. “I don’t know Baekhyun. I just-I’m tired of trying to make excuses for you.”
Yixing perks up. “Kyungsoo.”
“Not everyone’s going to deal with your shit. Either you do something about your problem or you lose everyone who is still willing to back you up,”
“He slept with Luhan,”
“You knew that was inevitable. You’ve seen it coming.”
“After Luhan slept with Kris,” Baekhyun retorts. “Doesn’t sound so nice now, does it? Don’t tell me he has no idea. I fucking ran to him that night, practically cried for hours but what did he do? The next morning, Luhan comes up to him, explains and unfortunately, kid couldn’t keep his libido in check and voila.”
“He said he was sorry!”
“Well, I’m sorry if I can’t forgive so easily like you do,” Baekhyun pushes his chair away and stands up to leave with Yixing’s exhausted sigh the last thing he hears.
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