Paper Planes (4/?)
Paper Planes (4/?)
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.
“I really think you have too much free time.” Sehun says while watching the toy helicopter fly around the corners of the room, controlled by none other than that one who made it, Zhang Yixing. It’s break time and normally students are out round and about, doing their own thing, but this time they’re all present to play with Yixing’s new toy.
“What are you even doing here?” Yixing tells him while following the helicopter around with his eyes. “Don’t you have class?”
“It’s break time.”
“Our break time, you shameless sophomore.”
“Oh come on,” Sehun pouts and pulls his chair closer to Yixing to whisper. “The ladies like me here.” He turns to the group of ladies in the corner and winks at them. Yixing, on the other hand, just snorts at him.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Besides, Mrs. Jung wouldn’t fail me. I mean, there’s no way she could fail me.” Sehun adds with a suggestive smirk in which Yixing replied with a snarl.
“You’re even more disgusting.”
“Yixing!”
Yixing turns to the door in surprise and loses control over the toy helicopter which ended up crashing towards Chanyeol who was standing by the door and hit his head. Chanyeol actually ducked but given his height…never mind. Yixing immediately ran towards his helicopter. “Man, you broke it!” He yells while picking up the toy from the floor.
Chanyeol glowers at him. “That didn’t hurt, thank you for asking.”
“What is it anyway?” Yixing asks while checking the parts of his toy.
Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows after looking around. “I was going to ask you what class Sehun is in but he’s here.” He trails off as Sehun walks over towards them. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you a 2nd year?”
Yixing glances at them. “Yeah, tell him Chanyeol.”
Chanyeol shrugs. “Well, whatever, makes my life easier.” Yixing gives him a look.
“Why are you looking for me?” Sehun asks.
“Right, I have something important to ask you…” Chanyeol slowly turns to Yixing who’s busy trying to fix his toy. “That Yixing isn’t supposed to know.” He whispers as he pulls Sehun out of the room with him.
“Oh, okay.”
Chanyeol looks around suspiciously although in reality he’s actually checking on Baekhyun who was hiding behind the lockers. Sehun was starting to get worried with how Chanyeol was acting but he couldn’t find it in him to ask if he was on drugs. “So uh,” Chanyeol finally starts, almost startling Sehun. “You know about the movie the 3 idiots?”
“Ha?”
“You know, the Indian movie?”
“I know it’s an Indian movie and I’ve watched it,” Sehun says slowly. “But why are you asking me?”
“Well, because-“
“OH SEHUN!”
Sehun immediately regrets turning around because a soon as he did, a foot landed on his crotch with brute force, too painful that he starts questioning his future dream of having a son because he’s not quite sure if he can produce semen anymore. “Fuck-“ He curses as he curls down the floor, holding his crotch in pain.
“HOLY SH-“ Baekhyun exclaims, eyes widened and lips curved into a large smile. “I DID IT!” He hops happily when it finally came to him that he kicked Sehun’s crotch. “I KICKED HIS PENIS!”
“Okay.” Chanyeol interrupts while chuckling and notices Sehun crawling towards Baekhyun with grabby hands. “Baekhyun, run, run!”
Baekhyun gasps and immediately sprints away, laughing loudly. “ALL IS WELL, OH SEHUN!”
Chanyeol smiles happily as he watches Baekhyun’s figure slowly fade way due to the growing distance. He hears Sehun groan and immediately drops beside him. “You okay, dude?”
“Really?” Sehun deadpans. “You’re asking me that?”
Chanyeol gives him an apologetic smile. “Please don’t get mad at him-“
“I’m not,” Sehun says seriously, staring down on the floor. “I know why he did that. I deserved it.”
Chanyeol was caught off-guard with the statement. Maybe one they all need is a little courage to reason out and they’ll be fine. Maybe what they needed is only a little push.
“Though, you could’ve at least given me a heads-up.”
Chanyeol shrugs. “You would still have your penis kicked.”
The aftermath of the incident was that Sehun finally had the balls (oh, the irony) to approach Baekhyun personally (Chanyeol found out that Sehun didn’t actually apologize to Baekhyun for what happened before, it was Kyungsoo who kept telling Baekhyun Sehun was sorry) and set things right. Chanyeol hopes it’s not too late anymore. If this can happen then maybe there’s a possibly that in the future, everything will be back to normal for Baekhyun. Although Chanyeol has no idea how things were before he came but he can see it happening.
“The thing is,” Baekhyun starts while muching the fries Chanyeol ordered for himself but got eaten by Baekhyun. “He loved me too much.”
No, they’re not talking about Kris. They’re talking about Sehun who’s actually in the counter ordering and paying for Baekhyun’s food. And the fact that they’re talking about Sehun deserves an eyebrow raise from Chanyeol. “Oh really?”
Baekhyun glowers at him. “Why don’t you ever believe me?”
“I do believe you,” Chanyeol replies. “But first I have to not believe you.”
“Anyway,” Baekhyun segues. “We have a history and all. I’m his favorite hyung.” Chanyeol can’t tell if he’s proud or annoyed with that.
“And that’s a good explanation because?”
“He’s scared to talk to me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Come on, you’re supposed to be the smart one here!” Baekhyun whines just in time Sehun arrives with a tray full of food. Baekhyun checks the tray. “Sundae?” Sehun nods. “Chocolate?” Sehun nods. “Dairy free?” Sehun nods. Chanyeol stares at the weirdly. “Two marshmallows at the bottom?”
Sehun pauses.
Baekhyun sighs disappointedly. “So close.”
“I didn’t check! But I know they put marshmallows!”
Baekhyun shakes his head. “So so close.” Sehun pouts as he sits down.
“What just happened…” Chanyeol mumbles in his seat.
“Baekhyun has a specific list of things to put on a sundae,” Sehun whispers closely. “Don’t even wonder why.”
Baekhyun groans, distracting the other two. “They put cheese on my burger!”
“You don’t like cheese?” Chanyeol asks.
“He’s lactose intolerant.”
“I’m lactose intolerant.” Baekhyun and Sehun reply at the same time.
Chanyeol nods. “…okay.” Baekhyun stands up and leaves with his burger. Chanyeol follows with his eyes. “Where’s he going?” He asks Sehun.
“Give it a sec.”
“EXCUSE ME YOU INCOMPETENT WORKERS-“
Chanyeol almost choked on humid air. It’s not that he hasn’t seen this side of Baekhyun before but to make a scene in a store full of people is not something he wants to get used to. He sees Sehun lowering his head, probably acting like he doesn’t know Baekhyun and decides to lower his head too. After a minute or so, Baekhyun’s back in the table with a large grin on his face. He got a burger for free.
Chanyeol shakes his head while laughing. “You never told me you were lactose intolerant.”
“Why would I tell you that?”
Chanyeol raises an eyebrow, noticing how Baekhyun is purposely making him repeat this conversation. “We have honesty half-an-hour?”
Sehun looks up from his pasta. “Honesty half-an-hour? What’s that?”
“It’s a game we play.” Baekhyun answers back.
“It’s not a game.” Chanyeol insists.
Baekhyun glowers at him. “Fine. It’s a not-a-game we play.”
Chanyeol turns to Sehun. “We have to be honest and tell the truth and nothing but the truth about ourselves for half-an-hour.”
“Cool.” Sehun says. “Good luck squeezing the truth out of him.” He adds, referring to Baekhyun. Chanyeol found it suspicious so he turned to Baekhyun and when that suggestive grin came to sight, he’s certain something is suspicious. It’s proportional to how he can never tell if Baekhyun is joking or not. He can never tell if, after all the honesty half-an-hour they did, he was telling the truth. Well, great. Now Chanyeol has to go all Sherlock on him.
“Shit.” Sehun curses after glancing on his watch. “I’m late for class!” Baekhyun smirks. Sehun grabbed his bag before standing up, the burger still stuck on his mouth. “Adios!” He yells as he runs.
Chanyeol sees Baekhyun’s little smirk. “That’s interesting.” Baekhyun says.
“What is?”
“Sehun failed Spanish. That’s probably the only thing he learned.” Baekhyun shrugs. “Aside from señorita.”
“I didn’t know the school has Spanish class?”
“We don’t. He signed up on some language tutoring class on his own to get girls but ended up failing it because apparently he doesn’t dig girls.” Chanyeol chuckles at that and Baekhyun smiles. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be going back? Break time’s almost done.”
Chanyeol told him that it’s fine if they go back together but Baekhyun insisted they don’t because the students would just start talking about it. But how are they going to move on if you don’t even try to move on, he wants to tell him but he’s scared that if he does, he’ll be one of those people. So he complies. He grabs his backpack and waves a little before walking off.
It was Thursday afternoon, just when Chanyeol was about to walk inside the faculty room carrying a load of cartolina for his presentation about Plasmodium species and how it causes Malaria and how Malaria fucking kills people, when Baekhyun grabbed him. “Come with me.” Baekhyun tells him and Chanyeol can just shove him off and pretend that nothing happened if he was another person but it was Baekhyun asking him to accompany him.
“What? I can’t. I have a presentation today.”
Baekhyun gives him a look. “I didn’t mean now. Later. Come with me later.”
“O-okay.” Baekhyun waves him off when the teacher yells for Chanyeol and Chanyeol smiles as he watches Baekhyun skip away.
For the first time coming to the school, Chanyeol was nervous. Not because of the presence of his professor but because of the presence of his seniors who, of the hundreds of students a level higher than him, had to be Luhan and Junmyeon. Luhan and Junmyeon. Luhan. And. Junmyeon. He feels as if all the facts he memorized three days prior flew out of the window.
It was during the middle part of his presentation, where he talks about the three stages of paroxysm due to the merozoites infecting the red blood cells, when he notices Luhan’s smirk that he was convinced that the blondie was not here to grade him for his presentation but for something else. At least Junmyeon was a little tolerable even though he kept on cutting him off to clarify things because then he knows Junmyeon is actually paying attention to his presentation and not to the fact that it’s him, Chanyeol, doing the presentation, the guy who received the first punch of the year from Kris (and the second too), the guy who got shoved against the locker by Kris and the guy who hangs out with Baekhyun.
Thankfully, he was able to finish the presentation without getting tongue-tied about the word Chloroquine which is the primary treatment for Malaria for the last 50 years. The professor and Junmyeon were all smiles after he was done while Luhan was all smirks.
“Very good, Chanyeol.” Professor Lee tells him. “You can get your grades tomorrow. For the meantime, I’ll let these seniors vying for Magna to evaluate you.”
If anything or if ever his opinion will ever matter, he’d vote for Junmyeon. Junmyeon walks up to him with a big smile and a paper on hand. “Hey, I was really impressed with your presentation although they were some bad points like you keep on moving and stuff.” Chanyeol nods and Junmyeon turns his head to the cartolina. “Those are some nice drawings of trophozoites and cysts and gametocytes. You did that?”
“Uh, no, my roommate did. Yixing.”
“Ah! Yixing.” Junmyeon says. “Well, I’m quite busy so I have to go but I made you an evaluation paper. You can refer here.”
The way Junmyeon is too formal kind of bothers him. This guy is going to be the next President. “Uh, thanks.”
“Well then, Chanyeol, Luhan, I’ll be going first.”
Chanyeol bows at him as he goes while Luhan waves.
“So,” Luhan starts and Chanyeol’s feeling a little nervous. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met.”
Chanyeol nods. “Yeah…” If you don’t count the locker incident.
“So,” Luhan says again as he walks towards the table in front to sit on top of it. “Why him?”
“Why who?”
Luhan snorts. “Please, we both know who we’re talking about here.”
“What does it matter to you?”
“Oh, not just me, it matters to all of us, to everyone in this school. It’s everybody’s question. Everyone’s wondering.” Chanyeol doesn’t really want to talk about his personal life to strangers nor does he like being put in the spot so he just stares at Luhan, hoping that he would realize that this sort of conversation is ridiculous. “You could’ve avoided this you know. Hell, you could’ve avoided being shoved against the locker or being punched on the face by Kris if it weren’t for Baekhyun.”
“What do you mean? Why do you hate him so much?”
Luhan gasps mockingly. “Hate is a big word, my dear. Let’s just say…fond. Yeah, we’re fond of him. It’s always entertaining when you see someone fall from the top of the pyramid. He was always so…ethereal. So bright. So happy. Everybody’s favorite.”
“So, that’s it? You’re jealous?”
Luhan snorts in exasperation. “You act like he’s the most angelic person to set foot on earth. Well, he’s not. If you think he has always been the victim here then you’re wrong.” Chanyeol was confused. “As I thought, you didn’t sign up for the Underground did you?”
“There’s no reason for me to.”
“Oh?” Luhan croons, obviously getting entertained. “If you trust your judgment so much, why don’t you?”
He wasn’t pushing him. It was a challenge. And it got Chanyeol thinking.
“Well, I have to go. Junmyeon’s not the only one busy. Think about it.” Luhan says lastly before walking out of the study room.
He organizes his things before walking out. He greets the teachers on the way to the door and before he knew it, with his mind stuck on an endless wonder about the Underground, he found himself leaning on the wall on the hallway, rolled cartolinas and backpack on the floor, staring at the Underground’s main page.
“If you trust your judgment so much, why don’t you?”
Luhan has a point. It wouldn’t matter. He’s already deeply in love with Baekhyun.
Chanyeol finally types in his e-mail and all the other things he needs to sign up. Afterwards, he’s greeted with the website’s header and he scrolls down. He really doesn’t know what he should be searching for or what he should be seeing but after three more scrolls he’s greeted with Baekhyun’s name on every title of the forums. It kind of pains him to see that everyone who signed up for this site only talks about him, feeding off entertainment from him. He clicks the first thread and there appear candid photos of Baekhyun in various clubs with various guys. Chanyeol knows better than to pass judgments with only these photos. He knows Baekhyun always gets hit on by guys in the club, actually that’s almost what everyone does in a club. These people act like it’s a mortal sin. That was until he reached the end of the page where one post was filled with pictures of Baekhyun with a familiar blond head, Kris. Chanyeol can feel his hands shaking as he looks at the photos. Baekhyun leaning on the wall, Kris cornering him, Kris’ arms on each side, with Kris kissing his neck. Baekhyun on top of Kris’ lap, legs spread apart as he kisses Kris on the lips and Chanyeol sees Kris’ hand on Baekhyun’s ass even with the blur. There are more and most of them involve Baekhyun spreading his legs to Kris. It disgusted him.
Chanyeol couldn’t say anything. What would he honestly expect? He knew Baekhyun had something with Kris and he can’t take that away. He just didn’t think Baekhyun would exploit himself to someone who wouldn’t even appreciate what a gem he is and maybe the thought of Baekhyun degrading himself hurts. He couldn’t take that reality.
“How long have you been in the site?!” Yixing yells when he abruptly snatches Chanyeol’s phone making the giant feel lost for a moment. Chanyeol notices Yixing’s rage. It’s 6:30 in the evening and he doesn’t even remember much of how he got back to the dorm from the school building. He didn’t even bother looking for Baekhyun. It just didn’t feel right.
“I-“
“You actually signed up? Damn.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Oh? Then what made you?”
Chanyeol couldn’t tell him the truth because then it would make such a small matter complicated. He opened his mouth for an excuse when a sudden screech interrupted them both.
“I SAID LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!”
Followed by a loud slam of the door. Yixing and Chanyeol glance at each other before running out, realizing the yell came from Baekhyun.
“Come on, Baekhyun, open up!”
They hear Junmyeon yell in front of Baekhyun’s door. “What happened?” Yixing asks. Chanyeol notices how the floor is wet.
Junmyeon sighs. “He came back soaking wet with a few scratches. I asked him what happened but he wouldn’t tell me.”
Yixing pauses for moment before finally remembering something. “Damn it. He went to the back of the school.” Chanyeol turns to him in confusion as he continues, “Well, you’re never going to get anything from him once he’s inside his room.”
Junmyeon sighs again. “Just, give him this.” He passes the first aid kit to Yixing. “His wounds need to be treated.”
“We’ll try but we can’t promise you anything.”
“Thanks.” Junmyeon smiles to both of them before leaving.
“Well, maybe we can just leave this here.” Yixing kneels down to drop the first aid kit on the floor, on the spot where the flowers used to take the space.
“Yixing, you said something about the back of the school?”
“Oh yeah,” Yixing says while standing up. “Not a lot of people know this but there’s actually an orphanage near the back of the school. You can get there by car if you use the main road but there’s a shortcut just behind the school. Baekhyun goes there once in a while. But ever since the whole issue, some of the students who really didn’t like him at first started waiting for him to pass by the shortcut just to play pranks on him. I told him once not to go without any companion but I guess listening is not his forte.”
“It’s my fault.” Yixing stares at him. “He asked me to come with him earlier and I don’t know…I got occupied with the whole site and-“
“Got scared?” Yixing finishes for him. Chanyeol doesn’t know if scared is the right word but it feels like the only thing he can feel right now. “See why you shouldn’t have signed up?”
No, it’s not that and Chanyeol knows that. It’s him. It’s not about signing up, it’s about his emotions getting the best of him. “Well, he’s not going to open up for anyone so just wait until tomorrow.”
“I can’t.”
Yixing shrugs. “Suit yourself then.”
Chanyeol waits for Yixing to get back inside their room before walking towards Baekhyun’s closed door and picking up the first aids kit. He knocked on the door, three times, four times and he continues until the number reached digits of two but still, the silence swallows them all. “Baekhyun.” He calls. It’s not first time either.
“You should try his window.”
He almost jumps when a sudden voice echoes behind him. He turns around a sees an unfamiliar face. He opens his mouth to say something but the stranger had raised his hand. “Ah, no need for introduction. I’ve lived here long enough that this kind of sight is not new anymore. And every time, it ends the same.”
Chanyeol flinches at the statement-how do they all end?
“Anyway,” The guy says. “Like I said, try his window. I don’t know if you know but Baekhyun doesn’t let people inside his room. And well, he’s the only one around here who has that privilege. But that’s not important. There are stairs behind the dorm so you wouldn’t have any problem climbing up.”
“Is that what they always do?”
It took seconds of staring before the guy smiled at him. “Nobody ever thought of it.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
“Because I’ve thought of it but never did it.” Chanyeol stares at him, wondering, begging to hear more. “Because just like everyone else, I was scared.”
Scared.
The guy smiles at him before turning around to leave, his figure slowly disappearing behind the shadows of the hallway. It left him wondering. He’s just like everyone else. The whole time, all he wanted to do was to avoid being one of those people Baekhyun has labeled to be no different from a judgmental prick. But right now, as he breathes, he is one of those people. But he’s determined to turn it around. Because unlike those people, unlike everyone else, he’d rather live by the edge of it than on it.
And those thoughts he kept in repeat in his head until he reached the back of the school even though knowing that nothing will ever change how he originally felt about the latter.
“Kim Jonghyun.”
“Ah?”
“One of Baekhyun’s many exes.”
Chanyeol almost chokes out his ice cream. It was inevitable that he’d ask about the guy who approached him that night especially with how their conversation went but he definitely did not expect Jonghyun to be in the same column as Kris because it’s obvious how much of an impact Kris has given to Baekhyun and suddenly he wonders if Jonghyun made an impact too and if so, how bad? “When?” He asks and Yixing swallows his bagel first before turning to him.
“2nd year.” Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows at Yixing. “It was kind of a multitasking. He was dating Jonghyun while Kris was hitting on him.” Chanyeol gasps and Yixing threatens him with his bagel. “Now, now before you I therefore conclude that Baekhyun was some slutty whore who gets every hot guy in the school because he is a slut, listen to me first.”
“I wouldn’t say that-“
Yixing threatens him with the bagel again and Chanyeol keeps quiet. “Jonghyun was…kind of an asshole. Okay no, he was more than an asshole. He cheated on Baekhyun and apparently, Kris was better at appreciating our golden boy. But that bastard wouldn’t admit that he cheated so Baekhyun’s reputation kind of went into a slope but still, we, his friends and Kris knew better than those people so it didn’t really matter.”
In this conversation, Chanyeol learned not two things, not three but one-that he knows nothing about Baekhyun’s feelings, in the past and in the present. Even with his attempts, he’s still a stranger, an outsider.
Yixing sighs as he leans on the bench to stare at the sky. “And maybe that’s why we never really took sides. We don’t know who is more fucked up between the two of them, Baekhyun or Kris. Kris might’ve hurt him but looking at the past, he’s done nothing but make him happy, he was always there for him so it’s kind of…hard to believe he’d do that.”
Then it was hard for Baekhyun to believe it too judging by how it affected him.
“It was hard to believe he’d cheat on him with his best friend.” Chanyeol stares at Yixing in confusion and Yixing chuckles. “Yeah, some story we have here.”
“Are you gonna tell me?”
“It won’t make a difference anyway. I mean, it’s not like you could change the past.” At some point, Chanyeol felt happy but judging by how he was set off easily when he signed up for that stupid site, he isn’t sure if he could make it until the end of the story. “Yeah, Luhan was Baekhyun’s best friend.” Yixing continues and Chanyeol gives him his full attention. “They were like two souls in one body, you know? You can’t find one if you can’t find the other. You can’t invite one to a party if you don’t invite the other. Oh, what was I? Luhan’s friend who had a tiny bit of a crush on Baekhyun.” Yixing notices Chanyeol’s weird look. “Come on, we’ve already established that that is a normal occurrence. “So, anyway, Kris and Baekhyun were going well, going steady. It was actually one of those relationships you would think already had a perfect ending planned out well. They were perfect for each other. Too perfect. Baekhyun doesn’t look for anyone else than Kris anymore. And that leaves us to Luhan.”
Chanyeol nods. For the first time he thinks he knows where Yixing is going with this story.
“Luhan was kind of…taken out of the picture. I mean, whenever we hang out, he won’t stop talking about Baekhyun and how much he hates Baekhyun. It was a total change. Baekhyun tried to patch it up but Luhan wouldn’t budge and I don’t know what set Luhan off at that time that he’d actually do that. Jealousy shouldn’t be enough to hurt your best friend like that. I mean, if you hate your best friend, you don’t go and fuck your best friend’s lover and record it then spread it around like a fucking trophy.”
The teachers doesn’t know about the video because it was only uploaded on the Underground but Chanyeol thinks even if they did, they won’t be able to fix two broken relationships.
Yixing has a different story. Luhan has a different story. Kris has a different story. But all of them end with Baekhyun getting the most pain and Chanyeol thinks it’s not fair.
Yixing shakes his head, chuckling. “Anyway, that’s in the past. I just hope it remains there. I just hope.”
You hope but you can’t even let go of it, Chanyeol thinks as he glances away from Yixing.
“So, how did last night go? Shit on your pants?”
Chanyeol threatens him with his ice cream this time. “Now you listen to how great I am.” Yixing snorts.
Frankly, he could call himself great judging from how it went with Baekhyun last night but somewhere in between those words was a lanky clumsy giant who almost knocked off a vase trying to sneak in the window that he got pushed out immediately before he can even set foot on the floor.
Baekhyun closed the windows and dragged the curtains and Chanyeol just stares at his reflection on the glass as he stands on the staircase. “Come on, A for effort? I climbed up you know! It was hard! I almost fell!” The curtains are closed but he can see Baekhyun’s figure due to the reflection of the light.
“What the hell are you even doing here?” Baekhyun finally asks and Chanyeol almost exclaims in joy.
Chanyeol clears his throat. “I-uh-“ He looks down on the first aid kit on his hands and then back up. “You need to treat your wounds.”
“No need. I’m not going to die.”
“Oh but uh…wounds are a great portal of entry for bacteria you know?”
“So what? You’re going all smart-ass talking about Bacteriology with me now? We don’t even take that yet!”
“If you listen closely, you can hear the back of your mind saying how worried it is with your health.” Chanyeol hears Baekhyun scoff and he sighs. “Look, Baek, I’m really sorry. It’s my fault. I should’ve gone with you.”
“Do you really think that blaming yourself for what happened to me is going to make me feel better?”
“No-I-I just want you to know that I’m here, I’ll always be here.”
“Oh really? Cause I’m pretty sure you weren’t there when those guys threw me on the water.”
“If you can’t forgive me now, that’s fine. I’ll just keep on trying. But please, just let me treat me your wounds. You could at least give me that assurance.”
There was silence around them for a moment. Just as Chanyeol thought that Baekhyun would never agree with his condition, Baekhyun spoke. “Fine. Leave the first-aid kit there and climb down. I’m not gonna let you in my room.” And it gave Chanyeol relief even though Baekhyun still refuses to let him see him.
Chanyeol carefully placed the first aid kit on the small space under the slightly opened window before climbing down three steps. After a few seconds, Baekhyun peeked in between the curtains to make sure Chanyeol’s gone. He pushes the glass up to fully open the window just as Chanyeol climbs up, making Baekhyun jump back in surprise. “WHAT THE-“ Chanyeol jumps inside the room through the window and Baekhyun grabs his laptop from the desk, raising it up with both hands.
Chanyeol stares at him. “Are you threatening me with your laptop?”
“GET OUT.”
“Listen, Baekhyun-“
“WHAT IN ‘I DON’T WANT YOU IN MY ROOM’ DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?”
“Let me talk will you-“ Chanyeol immediately runs when Baekhyun started advancing. “Hey, hey come on calm down!”
“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN YOU STUPID ASSHOLE-“ Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun’s arm when he sees him in a state of vulnerability and snatches the laptop with his free hand. Baekhyun struggles for a few seconds before finally surrendering to Chanyeol’s large hands and ends up leaning his back on the giant’s chest. Chanyeol can feel the latter’s fast heartbeat and cold hands against his.
“You’re cold.”
“Of course I’m cold you try to swim on the lake and then run back here. Nobody ever gives me a break.” Baekhyun mutters back and Chanyeol feels his pain.
Chanyeol pulls him closer, close enough he can feel Baekhyun’s hair under his chin. “I’m sorry.”
And maybe sometimes what people need is someone to drain the pain from them.
<< >>
a/n:
hey sorry this took so long
too busy with school ;;
anyway, unbeta-ed for your convenience lmao jk
lovelots!
-gelie
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.
“I really think you have too much free time.” Sehun says while watching the toy helicopter fly around the corners of the room, controlled by none other than that one who made it, Zhang Yixing. It’s break time and normally students are out round and about, doing their own thing, but this time they’re all present to play with Yixing’s new toy.
“What are you even doing here?” Yixing tells him while following the helicopter around with his eyes. “Don’t you have class?”
“It’s break time.”
“Our break time, you shameless sophomore.”
“Oh come on,” Sehun pouts and pulls his chair closer to Yixing to whisper. “The ladies like me here.” He turns to the group of ladies in the corner and winks at them. Yixing, on the other hand, just snorts at him.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Besides, Mrs. Jung wouldn’t fail me. I mean, there’s no way she could fail me.” Sehun adds with a suggestive smirk in which Yixing replied with a snarl.
“You’re even more disgusting.”
“Yixing!”
Yixing turns to the door in surprise and loses control over the toy helicopter which ended up crashing towards Chanyeol who was standing by the door and hit his head. Chanyeol actually ducked but given his height…never mind. Yixing immediately ran towards his helicopter. “Man, you broke it!” He yells while picking up the toy from the floor.
Chanyeol glowers at him. “That didn’t hurt, thank you for asking.”
“What is it anyway?” Yixing asks while checking the parts of his toy.
Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows after looking around. “I was going to ask you what class Sehun is in but he’s here.” He trails off as Sehun walks over towards them. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you a 2nd year?”
Yixing glances at them. “Yeah, tell him Chanyeol.”
Chanyeol shrugs. “Well, whatever, makes my life easier.” Yixing gives him a look.
“Why are you looking for me?” Sehun asks.
“Right, I have something important to ask you…” Chanyeol slowly turns to Yixing who’s busy trying to fix his toy. “That Yixing isn’t supposed to know.” He whispers as he pulls Sehun out of the room with him.
“Oh, okay.”
Chanyeol looks around suspiciously although in reality he’s actually checking on Baekhyun who was hiding behind the lockers. Sehun was starting to get worried with how Chanyeol was acting but he couldn’t find it in him to ask if he was on drugs. “So uh,” Chanyeol finally starts, almost startling Sehun. “You know about the movie the 3 idiots?”
“Ha?”
“You know, the Indian movie?”
“I know it’s an Indian movie and I’ve watched it,” Sehun says slowly. “But why are you asking me?”
“Well, because-“
“OH SEHUN!”
Sehun immediately regrets turning around because a soon as he did, a foot landed on his crotch with brute force, too painful that he starts questioning his future dream of having a son because he’s not quite sure if he can produce semen anymore. “Fuck-“ He curses as he curls down the floor, holding his crotch in pain.
“HOLY SH-“ Baekhyun exclaims, eyes widened and lips curved into a large smile. “I DID IT!” He hops happily when it finally came to him that he kicked Sehun’s crotch. “I KICKED HIS PENIS!”
“Okay.” Chanyeol interrupts while chuckling and notices Sehun crawling towards Baekhyun with grabby hands. “Baekhyun, run, run!”
Baekhyun gasps and immediately sprints away, laughing loudly. “ALL IS WELL, OH SEHUN!”
Chanyeol smiles happily as he watches Baekhyun’s figure slowly fade way due to the growing distance. He hears Sehun groan and immediately drops beside him. “You okay, dude?”
“Really?” Sehun deadpans. “You’re asking me that?”
Chanyeol gives him an apologetic smile. “Please don’t get mad at him-“
“I’m not,” Sehun says seriously, staring down on the floor. “I know why he did that. I deserved it.”
Chanyeol was caught off-guard with the statement. Maybe one they all need is a little courage to reason out and they’ll be fine. Maybe what they needed is only a little push.
“Though, you could’ve at least given me a heads-up.”
Chanyeol shrugs. “You would still have your penis kicked.”
The aftermath of the incident was that Sehun finally had the balls (oh, the irony) to approach Baekhyun personally (Chanyeol found out that Sehun didn’t actually apologize to Baekhyun for what happened before, it was Kyungsoo who kept telling Baekhyun Sehun was sorry) and set things right. Chanyeol hopes it’s not too late anymore. If this can happen then maybe there’s a possibly that in the future, everything will be back to normal for Baekhyun. Although Chanyeol has no idea how things were before he came but he can see it happening.
“The thing is,” Baekhyun starts while muching the fries Chanyeol ordered for himself but got eaten by Baekhyun. “He loved me too much.”
No, they’re not talking about Kris. They’re talking about Sehun who’s actually in the counter ordering and paying for Baekhyun’s food. And the fact that they’re talking about Sehun deserves an eyebrow raise from Chanyeol. “Oh really?”
Baekhyun glowers at him. “Why don’t you ever believe me?”
“I do believe you,” Chanyeol replies. “But first I have to not believe you.”
“Anyway,” Baekhyun segues. “We have a history and all. I’m his favorite hyung.” Chanyeol can’t tell if he’s proud or annoyed with that.
“And that’s a good explanation because?”
“He’s scared to talk to me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Come on, you’re supposed to be the smart one here!” Baekhyun whines just in time Sehun arrives with a tray full of food. Baekhyun checks the tray. “Sundae?” Sehun nods. “Chocolate?” Sehun nods. “Dairy free?” Sehun nods. Chanyeol stares at the weirdly. “Two marshmallows at the bottom?”
Sehun pauses.
Baekhyun sighs disappointedly. “So close.”
“I didn’t check! But I know they put marshmallows!”
Baekhyun shakes his head. “So so close.” Sehun pouts as he sits down.
“What just happened…” Chanyeol mumbles in his seat.
“Baekhyun has a specific list of things to put on a sundae,” Sehun whispers closely. “Don’t even wonder why.”
Baekhyun groans, distracting the other two. “They put cheese on my burger!”
“You don’t like cheese?” Chanyeol asks.
“He’s lactose intolerant.”
“I’m lactose intolerant.” Baekhyun and Sehun reply at the same time.
Chanyeol nods. “…okay.” Baekhyun stands up and leaves with his burger. Chanyeol follows with his eyes. “Where’s he going?” He asks Sehun.
“Give it a sec.”
“EXCUSE ME YOU INCOMPETENT WORKERS-“
Chanyeol almost choked on humid air. It’s not that he hasn’t seen this side of Baekhyun before but to make a scene in a store full of people is not something he wants to get used to. He sees Sehun lowering his head, probably acting like he doesn’t know Baekhyun and decides to lower his head too. After a minute or so, Baekhyun’s back in the table with a large grin on his face. He got a burger for free.
Chanyeol shakes his head while laughing. “You never told me you were lactose intolerant.”
“Why would I tell you that?”
Chanyeol raises an eyebrow, noticing how Baekhyun is purposely making him repeat this conversation. “We have honesty half-an-hour?”
Sehun looks up from his pasta. “Honesty half-an-hour? What’s that?”
“It’s a game we play.” Baekhyun answers back.
“It’s not a game.” Chanyeol insists.
Baekhyun glowers at him. “Fine. It’s a not-a-game we play.”
Chanyeol turns to Sehun. “We have to be honest and tell the truth and nothing but the truth about ourselves for half-an-hour.”
“Cool.” Sehun says. “Good luck squeezing the truth out of him.” He adds, referring to Baekhyun. Chanyeol found it suspicious so he turned to Baekhyun and when that suggestive grin came to sight, he’s certain something is suspicious. It’s proportional to how he can never tell if Baekhyun is joking or not. He can never tell if, after all the honesty half-an-hour they did, he was telling the truth. Well, great. Now Chanyeol has to go all Sherlock on him.
“Shit.” Sehun curses after glancing on his watch. “I’m late for class!” Baekhyun smirks. Sehun grabbed his bag before standing up, the burger still stuck on his mouth. “Adios!” He yells as he runs.
Chanyeol sees Baekhyun’s little smirk. “That’s interesting.” Baekhyun says.
“What is?”
“Sehun failed Spanish. That’s probably the only thing he learned.” Baekhyun shrugs. “Aside from señorita.”
“I didn’t know the school has Spanish class?”
“We don’t. He signed up on some language tutoring class on his own to get girls but ended up failing it because apparently he doesn’t dig girls.” Chanyeol chuckles at that and Baekhyun smiles. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be going back? Break time’s almost done.”
Chanyeol told him that it’s fine if they go back together but Baekhyun insisted they don’t because the students would just start talking about it. But how are they going to move on if you don’t even try to move on, he wants to tell him but he’s scared that if he does, he’ll be one of those people. So he complies. He grabs his backpack and waves a little before walking off.
It was Thursday afternoon, just when Chanyeol was about to walk inside the faculty room carrying a load of cartolina for his presentation about Plasmodium species and how it causes Malaria and how Malaria fucking kills people, when Baekhyun grabbed him. “Come with me.” Baekhyun tells him and Chanyeol can just shove him off and pretend that nothing happened if he was another person but it was Baekhyun asking him to accompany him.
“What? I can’t. I have a presentation today.”
Baekhyun gives him a look. “I didn’t mean now. Later. Come with me later.”
“O-okay.” Baekhyun waves him off when the teacher yells for Chanyeol and Chanyeol smiles as he watches Baekhyun skip away.
For the first time coming to the school, Chanyeol was nervous. Not because of the presence of his professor but because of the presence of his seniors who, of the hundreds of students a level higher than him, had to be Luhan and Junmyeon. Luhan and Junmyeon. Luhan. And. Junmyeon. He feels as if all the facts he memorized three days prior flew out of the window.
It was during the middle part of his presentation, where he talks about the three stages of paroxysm due to the merozoites infecting the red blood cells, when he notices Luhan’s smirk that he was convinced that the blondie was not here to grade him for his presentation but for something else. At least Junmyeon was a little tolerable even though he kept on cutting him off to clarify things because then he knows Junmyeon is actually paying attention to his presentation and not to the fact that it’s him, Chanyeol, doing the presentation, the guy who received the first punch of the year from Kris (and the second too), the guy who got shoved against the locker by Kris and the guy who hangs out with Baekhyun.
Thankfully, he was able to finish the presentation without getting tongue-tied about the word Chloroquine which is the primary treatment for Malaria for the last 50 years. The professor and Junmyeon were all smiles after he was done while Luhan was all smirks.
“Very good, Chanyeol.” Professor Lee tells him. “You can get your grades tomorrow. For the meantime, I’ll let these seniors vying for Magna to evaluate you.”
If anything or if ever his opinion will ever matter, he’d vote for Junmyeon. Junmyeon walks up to him with a big smile and a paper on hand. “Hey, I was really impressed with your presentation although they were some bad points like you keep on moving and stuff.” Chanyeol nods and Junmyeon turns his head to the cartolina. “Those are some nice drawings of trophozoites and cysts and gametocytes. You did that?”
“Uh, no, my roommate did. Yixing.”
“Ah! Yixing.” Junmyeon says. “Well, I’m quite busy so I have to go but I made you an evaluation paper. You can refer here.”
The way Junmyeon is too formal kind of bothers him. This guy is going to be the next President. “Uh, thanks.”
“Well then, Chanyeol, Luhan, I’ll be going first.”
Chanyeol bows at him as he goes while Luhan waves.
“So,” Luhan starts and Chanyeol’s feeling a little nervous. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met.”
Chanyeol nods. “Yeah…” If you don’t count the locker incident.
“So,” Luhan says again as he walks towards the table in front to sit on top of it. “Why him?”
“Why who?”
Luhan snorts. “Please, we both know who we’re talking about here.”
“What does it matter to you?”
“Oh, not just me, it matters to all of us, to everyone in this school. It’s everybody’s question. Everyone’s wondering.” Chanyeol doesn’t really want to talk about his personal life to strangers nor does he like being put in the spot so he just stares at Luhan, hoping that he would realize that this sort of conversation is ridiculous. “You could’ve avoided this you know. Hell, you could’ve avoided being shoved against the locker or being punched on the face by Kris if it weren’t for Baekhyun.”
“What do you mean? Why do you hate him so much?”
Luhan gasps mockingly. “Hate is a big word, my dear. Let’s just say…fond. Yeah, we’re fond of him. It’s always entertaining when you see someone fall from the top of the pyramid. He was always so…ethereal. So bright. So happy. Everybody’s favorite.”
“So, that’s it? You’re jealous?”
Luhan snorts in exasperation. “You act like he’s the most angelic person to set foot on earth. Well, he’s not. If you think he has always been the victim here then you’re wrong.” Chanyeol was confused. “As I thought, you didn’t sign up for the Underground did you?”
“There’s no reason for me to.”
“Oh?” Luhan croons, obviously getting entertained. “If you trust your judgment so much, why don’t you?”
He wasn’t pushing him. It was a challenge. And it got Chanyeol thinking.
“Well, I have to go. Junmyeon’s not the only one busy. Think about it.” Luhan says lastly before walking out of the study room.
He organizes his things before walking out. He greets the teachers on the way to the door and before he knew it, with his mind stuck on an endless wonder about the Underground, he found himself leaning on the wall on the hallway, rolled cartolinas and backpack on the floor, staring at the Underground’s main page.
“If you trust your judgment so much, why don’t you?”
Luhan has a point. It wouldn’t matter. He’s already deeply in love with Baekhyun.
Chanyeol finally types in his e-mail and all the other things he needs to sign up. Afterwards, he’s greeted with the website’s header and he scrolls down. He really doesn’t know what he should be searching for or what he should be seeing but after three more scrolls he’s greeted with Baekhyun’s name on every title of the forums. It kind of pains him to see that everyone who signed up for this site only talks about him, feeding off entertainment from him. He clicks the first thread and there appear candid photos of Baekhyun in various clubs with various guys. Chanyeol knows better than to pass judgments with only these photos. He knows Baekhyun always gets hit on by guys in the club, actually that’s almost what everyone does in a club. These people act like it’s a mortal sin. That was until he reached the end of the page where one post was filled with pictures of Baekhyun with a familiar blond head, Kris. Chanyeol can feel his hands shaking as he looks at the photos. Baekhyun leaning on the wall, Kris cornering him, Kris’ arms on each side, with Kris kissing his neck. Baekhyun on top of Kris’ lap, legs spread apart as he kisses Kris on the lips and Chanyeol sees Kris’ hand on Baekhyun’s ass even with the blur. There are more and most of them involve Baekhyun spreading his legs to Kris. It disgusted him.
Chanyeol couldn’t say anything. What would he honestly expect? He knew Baekhyun had something with Kris and he can’t take that away. He just didn’t think Baekhyun would exploit himself to someone who wouldn’t even appreciate what a gem he is and maybe the thought of Baekhyun degrading himself hurts. He couldn’t take that reality.
“How long have you been in the site?!” Yixing yells when he abruptly snatches Chanyeol’s phone making the giant feel lost for a moment. Chanyeol notices Yixing’s rage. It’s 6:30 in the evening and he doesn’t even remember much of how he got back to the dorm from the school building. He didn’t even bother looking for Baekhyun. It just didn’t feel right.
“I-“
“You actually signed up? Damn.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Oh? Then what made you?”
Chanyeol couldn’t tell him the truth because then it would make such a small matter complicated. He opened his mouth for an excuse when a sudden screech interrupted them both.
“I SAID LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!”
Followed by a loud slam of the door. Yixing and Chanyeol glance at each other before running out, realizing the yell came from Baekhyun.
“Come on, Baekhyun, open up!”
They hear Junmyeon yell in front of Baekhyun’s door. “What happened?” Yixing asks. Chanyeol notices how the floor is wet.
Junmyeon sighs. “He came back soaking wet with a few scratches. I asked him what happened but he wouldn’t tell me.”
Yixing pauses for moment before finally remembering something. “Damn it. He went to the back of the school.” Chanyeol turns to him in confusion as he continues, “Well, you’re never going to get anything from him once he’s inside his room.”
Junmyeon sighs again. “Just, give him this.” He passes the first aid kit to Yixing. “His wounds need to be treated.”
“We’ll try but we can’t promise you anything.”
“Thanks.” Junmyeon smiles to both of them before leaving.
“Well, maybe we can just leave this here.” Yixing kneels down to drop the first aid kit on the floor, on the spot where the flowers used to take the space.
“Yixing, you said something about the back of the school?”
“Oh yeah,” Yixing says while standing up. “Not a lot of people know this but there’s actually an orphanage near the back of the school. You can get there by car if you use the main road but there’s a shortcut just behind the school. Baekhyun goes there once in a while. But ever since the whole issue, some of the students who really didn’t like him at first started waiting for him to pass by the shortcut just to play pranks on him. I told him once not to go without any companion but I guess listening is not his forte.”
“It’s my fault.” Yixing stares at him. “He asked me to come with him earlier and I don’t know…I got occupied with the whole site and-“
“Got scared?” Yixing finishes for him. Chanyeol doesn’t know if scared is the right word but it feels like the only thing he can feel right now. “See why you shouldn’t have signed up?”
No, it’s not that and Chanyeol knows that. It’s him. It’s not about signing up, it’s about his emotions getting the best of him. “Well, he’s not going to open up for anyone so just wait until tomorrow.”
“I can’t.”
Yixing shrugs. “Suit yourself then.”
Chanyeol waits for Yixing to get back inside their room before walking towards Baekhyun’s closed door and picking up the first aids kit. He knocked on the door, three times, four times and he continues until the number reached digits of two but still, the silence swallows them all. “Baekhyun.” He calls. It’s not first time either.
“You should try his window.”
He almost jumps when a sudden voice echoes behind him. He turns around a sees an unfamiliar face. He opens his mouth to say something but the stranger had raised his hand. “Ah, no need for introduction. I’ve lived here long enough that this kind of sight is not new anymore. And every time, it ends the same.”
Chanyeol flinches at the statement-how do they all end?
“Anyway,” The guy says. “Like I said, try his window. I don’t know if you know but Baekhyun doesn’t let people inside his room. And well, he’s the only one around here who has that privilege. But that’s not important. There are stairs behind the dorm so you wouldn’t have any problem climbing up.”
“Is that what they always do?”
It took seconds of staring before the guy smiled at him. “Nobody ever thought of it.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
“Because I’ve thought of it but never did it.” Chanyeol stares at him, wondering, begging to hear more. “Because just like everyone else, I was scared.”
Scared.
The guy smiles at him before turning around to leave, his figure slowly disappearing behind the shadows of the hallway. It left him wondering. He’s just like everyone else. The whole time, all he wanted to do was to avoid being one of those people Baekhyun has labeled to be no different from a judgmental prick. But right now, as he breathes, he is one of those people. But he’s determined to turn it around. Because unlike those people, unlike everyone else, he’d rather live by the edge of it than on it.
And those thoughts he kept in repeat in his head until he reached the back of the school even though knowing that nothing will ever change how he originally felt about the latter.
“Kim Jonghyun.”
“Ah?”
“One of Baekhyun’s many exes.”
Chanyeol almost chokes out his ice cream. It was inevitable that he’d ask about the guy who approached him that night especially with how their conversation went but he definitely did not expect Jonghyun to be in the same column as Kris because it’s obvious how much of an impact Kris has given to Baekhyun and suddenly he wonders if Jonghyun made an impact too and if so, how bad? “When?” He asks and Yixing swallows his bagel first before turning to him.
“2nd year.” Chanyeol crooks his eyebrows at Yixing. “It was kind of a multitasking. He was dating Jonghyun while Kris was hitting on him.” Chanyeol gasps and Yixing threatens him with his bagel. “Now, now before you I therefore conclude that Baekhyun was some slutty whore who gets every hot guy in the school because he is a slut, listen to me first.”
“I wouldn’t say that-“
Yixing threatens him with the bagel again and Chanyeol keeps quiet. “Jonghyun was…kind of an asshole. Okay no, he was more than an asshole. He cheated on Baekhyun and apparently, Kris was better at appreciating our golden boy. But that bastard wouldn’t admit that he cheated so Baekhyun’s reputation kind of went into a slope but still, we, his friends and Kris knew better than those people so it didn’t really matter.”
In this conversation, Chanyeol learned not two things, not three but one-that he knows nothing about Baekhyun’s feelings, in the past and in the present. Even with his attempts, he’s still a stranger, an outsider.
Yixing sighs as he leans on the bench to stare at the sky. “And maybe that’s why we never really took sides. We don’t know who is more fucked up between the two of them, Baekhyun or Kris. Kris might’ve hurt him but looking at the past, he’s done nothing but make him happy, he was always there for him so it’s kind of…hard to believe he’d do that.”
Then it was hard for Baekhyun to believe it too judging by how it affected him.
“It was hard to believe he’d cheat on him with his best friend.” Chanyeol stares at Yixing in confusion and Yixing chuckles. “Yeah, some story we have here.”
“Are you gonna tell me?”
“It won’t make a difference anyway. I mean, it’s not like you could change the past.” At some point, Chanyeol felt happy but judging by how he was set off easily when he signed up for that stupid site, he isn’t sure if he could make it until the end of the story. “Yeah, Luhan was Baekhyun’s best friend.” Yixing continues and Chanyeol gives him his full attention. “They were like two souls in one body, you know? You can’t find one if you can’t find the other. You can’t invite one to a party if you don’t invite the other. Oh, what was I? Luhan’s friend who had a tiny bit of a crush on Baekhyun.” Yixing notices Chanyeol’s weird look. “Come on, we’ve already established that that is a normal occurrence. “So, anyway, Kris and Baekhyun were going well, going steady. It was actually one of those relationships you would think already had a perfect ending planned out well. They were perfect for each other. Too perfect. Baekhyun doesn’t look for anyone else than Kris anymore. And that leaves us to Luhan.”
Chanyeol nods. For the first time he thinks he knows where Yixing is going with this story.
“Luhan was kind of…taken out of the picture. I mean, whenever we hang out, he won’t stop talking about Baekhyun and how much he hates Baekhyun. It was a total change. Baekhyun tried to patch it up but Luhan wouldn’t budge and I don’t know what set Luhan off at that time that he’d actually do that. Jealousy shouldn’t be enough to hurt your best friend like that. I mean, if you hate your best friend, you don’t go and fuck your best friend’s lover and record it then spread it around like a fucking trophy.”
The teachers doesn’t know about the video because it was only uploaded on the Underground but Chanyeol thinks even if they did, they won’t be able to fix two broken relationships.
Yixing has a different story. Luhan has a different story. Kris has a different story. But all of them end with Baekhyun getting the most pain and Chanyeol thinks it’s not fair.
Yixing shakes his head, chuckling. “Anyway, that’s in the past. I just hope it remains there. I just hope.”
You hope but you can’t even let go of it, Chanyeol thinks as he glances away from Yixing.
“So, how did last night go? Shit on your pants?”
Chanyeol threatens him with his ice cream this time. “Now you listen to how great I am.” Yixing snorts.
Frankly, he could call himself great judging from how it went with Baekhyun last night but somewhere in between those words was a lanky clumsy giant who almost knocked off a vase trying to sneak in the window that he got pushed out immediately before he can even set foot on the floor.
Baekhyun closed the windows and dragged the curtains and Chanyeol just stares at his reflection on the glass as he stands on the staircase. “Come on, A for effort? I climbed up you know! It was hard! I almost fell!” The curtains are closed but he can see Baekhyun’s figure due to the reflection of the light.
“What the hell are you even doing here?” Baekhyun finally asks and Chanyeol almost exclaims in joy.
Chanyeol clears his throat. “I-uh-“ He looks down on the first aid kit on his hands and then back up. “You need to treat your wounds.”
“No need. I’m not going to die.”
“Oh but uh…wounds are a great portal of entry for bacteria you know?”
“So what? You’re going all smart-ass talking about Bacteriology with me now? We don’t even take that yet!”
“If you listen closely, you can hear the back of your mind saying how worried it is with your health.” Chanyeol hears Baekhyun scoff and he sighs. “Look, Baek, I’m really sorry. It’s my fault. I should’ve gone with you.”
“Do you really think that blaming yourself for what happened to me is going to make me feel better?”
“No-I-I just want you to know that I’m here, I’ll always be here.”
“Oh really? Cause I’m pretty sure you weren’t there when those guys threw me on the water.”
“If you can’t forgive me now, that’s fine. I’ll just keep on trying. But please, just let me treat me your wounds. You could at least give me that assurance.”
There was silence around them for a moment. Just as Chanyeol thought that Baekhyun would never agree with his condition, Baekhyun spoke. “Fine. Leave the first-aid kit there and climb down. I’m not gonna let you in my room.” And it gave Chanyeol relief even though Baekhyun still refuses to let him see him.
Chanyeol carefully placed the first aid kit on the small space under the slightly opened window before climbing down three steps. After a few seconds, Baekhyun peeked in between the curtains to make sure Chanyeol’s gone. He pushes the glass up to fully open the window just as Chanyeol climbs up, making Baekhyun jump back in surprise. “WHAT THE-“ Chanyeol jumps inside the room through the window and Baekhyun grabs his laptop from the desk, raising it up with both hands.
Chanyeol stares at him. “Are you threatening me with your laptop?”
“GET OUT.”
“Listen, Baekhyun-“
“WHAT IN ‘I DON’T WANT YOU IN MY ROOM’ DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?”
“Let me talk will you-“ Chanyeol immediately runs when Baekhyun started advancing. “Hey, hey come on calm down!”
“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN YOU STUPID ASSHOLE-“ Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun’s arm when he sees him in a state of vulnerability and snatches the laptop with his free hand. Baekhyun struggles for a few seconds before finally surrendering to Chanyeol’s large hands and ends up leaning his back on the giant’s chest. Chanyeol can feel the latter’s fast heartbeat and cold hands against his.
“You’re cold.”
“Of course I’m cold you try to swim on the lake and then run back here. Nobody ever gives me a break.” Baekhyun mutters back and Chanyeol feels his pain.
Chanyeol pulls him closer, close enough he can feel Baekhyun’s hair under his chin. “I’m sorry.”
And maybe sometimes what people need is someone to drain the pain from them.
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a/n:
hey sorry this took so long
too busy with school ;;
anyway, unbeta-ed for your convenience lmao jk
lovelots!
-gelie