[exo] why like this | two (final)
part one
Things after the party weren’t really all that different. Well. They weren’t different in the way Baekhyun had expected anyway. He now had Chanyeol’s number in his phone (he refused to put hearts after his name on principle though, because Byun Baekhyun may have been a lot of things, but he was not a sap), but when class came around that Monday, Chanyeol rushed into his seat just before the bell rang, barely sparing a sleepy Baekhyun a glance.
Baekhyun had about five minutes to be upset, glaring down at the buttons on his graphing calculator with as much irritation as he could manage so early in the morning, before a coffee cup was pushed across the table into his line of vision.
A glance at Chanyeol out of the corner of his eye told Baekhyun that the other boy was taking notes studiously, glasses slipping slowly down his nose precariously. He picked up the travel cup suspiciously, sniffing it to check for any sugar. Then he saw that on the side was written “Baekhyunnie ♥” in a messy scrawl and smiled. Tearing a corner off his notes, he scribbled a quick thank you on the paper. Baekhyun stared at the note for a second, feeling as though he should add something. The ‘thank you’ looked very naked all by itself in Baekhyun’s admittedly bad handwriting and so, in a fit of inspiration, he added a little ;) at the end and slid it towards Chanyeol before he could change his mind.
The other boy didn’t notice it at first, frantically trying to write down everything their professor wrote on the board in his illegible, math professor handwriting and Baekhyun felt the embarrassment begin to unfurl in his belly. A winky face? What had he been thinking?
He hunkered down over his paper, hoping to hide himself from Chanyeol when he saw the note and wishing it were possible for him to actually melt into his chair. Baekhyun was so immersed in his own humiliation that he barely noticed the slight rustle of paper as the note landed back in front of him.
Meet me after class?
Baekhyun flushed, thinking about Chanyeol sucking on his bottom lip, Chanyeol’s chest rubbing against his. Catching the other boy’s eye, Baekhyun nodded and couldn’t stop smiling for the whole rest of the class.
And for a while, that’s all there was. Baekhyun didn’t mind it. Texting Chanyeol during the day and meeting up with him after class (whether it was to have coffee or to make out in one of the conveniently located alcoves down the hall) were nice things and they didn’t get in the way of his busy practice schedule or Chanyeol’s schoolwork.
Honestly though, Baekhyun had almost expected Chanyeol to move on after a week or so. He was cheerful and likable and had a multitude of friends and Baekhyun still froze up in any social situation like a fucking iceberg and so every day he thought Chanyeol would decide that he had had enough with socially awkward concert pianists and move on to someone a bit more easygoing.
Musicians, especially the classical ones, were really bad at relationships. At least, that’s what Baekhyun had observed over the years, having seen one messy breakup if he had seen a hundred, and he sometimes wondered if he should just save Chanyeol and himself the trouble and just stop doing… whatever it was that they were doing. But then Chanyeol would smile at him, or poke him when it looked like he was drifting off during math class and Baekhyun would think that even though he wasn’t perfect (and he would know, having spent half his life in a practice room trying to make himself so), maybe Chanyeol was and they could be together anyway.
After a month, Chanyeol shyly asked Baekhyun over to watch a movie at his apartment.
He had ignored Jongin’s helpful (read: extremely unhelpful) advice about the invitation as he put on his coat to head over.
(“You know when a guy invites you over to watch a movie that means they want to make out.”
“I’m so not even listening to you right now.”
“Did he say what kind of movie it was? If they say it’s a funny movie, that means it’s porn.”
Baekhyun had choked, tripping over the pile of shoes by the door, and Jongin had laughed at him.)
Luckily, he and Chanyeol seemed to have the same taste in movies and so they both ended up pressed into the couch, Chanyeol’s arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders, as they watched an intense mystery thriller unfold onscreen. Chanyeol’s body was warm next to his, heat seeming to radiate from his chest, and Baekhyun felt his eyes begin to droop, the heavy practice schedule he’d been keeping lately finally starting to catch up to him. Burrowing into Chanyeol’s shoulder, he felt himself drift off to sleep.
“Baekhyunnie,” someone whispered, shaking his shoulder.
“Mfglwa?” His tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth in a way that meant he'd probably fallen asleep without brushing his teeth and he rubbed at his eyes, attempting to sit up. Fuzzily, he saw a toothbrush with toothpaste smeared across the bristles being held out to him. Above it was Chanyeol’s smiling face, glasses slipping down his nose as he leaned over the couch.
“Brush,” he ordered, tugging Baekhyun up by his other hand when he took the toothbrush. “Don’t worry. It's new."
“Did I miss the end of the movie?” Baekhyun asked around the toothpaste and plastic as he was lead into the bathroom, stumbling slightly as he tried to clear the cobwebs if sleep from his brain. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."
“It’s fine. Everyone died anyway." He held out a cup of water to him and Baekhyun frowned, mouth full of toothpaste.
After rinsing and spitting, he said, “Don’t ruin it for me!”
Chanyeol grinned at him unrepentantly. "I didn't say how."
Then he ducked into his bedroom, motioning for Baekhyun to follow him. Stepping through the doorway hesitantly, he blinked when a shirt was shoved at him.
"I don't have any spare bottoms so I - I hope that's okay."
He wasn’t sure if it was because he was still half asleep, but Baekhyun felt like he was missing something important. “Okay for what?”
Chanyeol scratched the back of his neck and Baekhyun realized with a start that he was nervous, the small hitch in his voice giving him away.
“It’s kind of late and I thought you might want to… stay over?”
He looked at the clock blinking up at him from Chanyeol’s bedside table. It was definitely too late for him to walk home, and the bed, a full-sized mattress with a fluffy-looking blanket that probably smelled like Chanyeol, looked really comfortable.
“Wu Fan’s out with his - with Zitao and he probably won’t even be back tonight.” He was talking kind of fast, and Baekhyun bit his lip, trying not to think about how cute it was. “And I promise I’ll buy you breakfast tomorrow!”
Nodding slowly, Baekhyun took the shirt and Chanyeol let out a breath, the tension going out of his shoulders, as though he had been afraid Baekhyun would say no. “I’ll go brush my teeth and stuff while you change.”
After he disappeared, Baekhyun slipped his shirt off, studying the bedroom. The desk on the far wall was covered with stacks of books and notes, Chanyeol’s computer sitting in the only clear space, and the wall and cork board above it were practically plastered with different colored post-its and diagrams. The area around the hamper in the corner was littered with pieces of clothing that had missed their target, and Baekhyun folded his shirt and pants carefully, setting them on the desk chair before going to stand awkwardly in front of the bed.
“You okay?” He looked over his shoulder to see Chanyeol coming back into the room, face red and shiny from having just been washed.
“Yeah I. Uh. I didn’t know which side you usually, um.” Baekhyun could feel the tips of his ears turning red, but luckily, Chanyeol didn’t seem to notice, flailing a hand at him as he went to stand in front of his closet.
“Doesn’t matter.” Gingerly lifting the edge of the comforter, Baekhyun slipped underneath it, the soft surface of the mattress a nice relief from the kinks sleeping on the couch had created in his back. The sheets did smell like Chanyeol, a little like pine or maybe the shampoo he used, and he rolled onto his side, trying to breathe it in from the pillowcase without seeming creepy. Instead, his heart jumped into his throat as he caught sight of the naked skin of Chanyeol’s back and his legs bare underneath a pair of boxer shorts. He seemed taller from where Baekhyun was lying on the bed, calves hopelessly long and the line of his spine curving this way and that as he shoved things around in his closet. Baekhyun swallowed hard and quickly rolled onto his back as Chanyeol walked around to the other side of the bed and lay down, turning to face him.
Baekhyun turned his head, meeting Chanyeol’s eyes. He had taken his glasses off, so he probably couldn’t see very clearly, but after a moment he pushed himself up, leaning over so he could see Baekhyun’s face better.
“‘Night, Baekhyunnie,” he said in a low voice before leaning down to kiss him, lips warm and minty against his, and almost on instinct, Baekhyun curled his fingers around Chanyeol’s arm as he tried to move away. There was a pause (Baekhyun even might have held his breath a little), and then Chanyeol relaxed, resting his head on the edge of his own pillow, inches away from Baekhyun’s and shifting so that their legs brushed together.
He still hadn’t moved his hand. Chanyeol’s skin was unbelievably warm under his fingers, and instead of letting go, Baekhyun just rubbed his head into the pillowcase, closing his eyes. “Goodnight.”
He woke to a loud thump in the hallway, Chanyeol somehow having managed to sling half of his body on top of Baekhyun in his sleep, and a glance at the clock told him they’d only been asleep for about an hour. Baekhyun might have been more concerned about the noise if it hadn’t been accompanied by a loud moan of the name Wu Fan.
At first, Baekhyun thought he had imagined it, Chanyeol draped across him and snoring barely audibly into his neck, but then he heard a door close and the sounds started coming from the room next door instead. That was the door that Chanyeol had pointed out as being Wu Fan’s and Baekhyun made a mental note to tell Chanyeol that the walls in his apartment were frightfully thin, because he could hear Wu Fan and whoever he was with hit the wall with a thump, the metal of their jeans dragging against the drywall. And then there were the moans. Having met Wu Fan a few times before, Baekhyun found it easy to tell which voice was his, low grunt filtering through the wall, while the other voice, definitely male, was raised into higher pitched whines
“Duizhang,” he heard the mystery voice keen.
Chanyeol shifted on his chest, one hand moving to curl more tightly around Baekhyun’s hip, and Baekhyun wondered how on earth the other boy could be sleeping through this. Maybe, he thought, beginning to feel slightly panicked, Chanyeol heard Wu Fan having sex all the time. Maybe Chanyeol had sex all the time and Wu Fan had to listen to it and it was some kind of weird roommate trade-off thing that they did of sex listening and oh my god, Chanyeol probably wanted to have sex with him and what if that was why he had asked Baekhyun to stay over?
Baekhyun could feel his heart starting to pound, skin suddenly too tight and itchy, and he suddenly felt suffocated by Chanyeol’s weight, the naked skin of his shoulders too close and immediate in the darkness of the bedroom.
The sounds from the other room were starting to get louder, accompanied by the creaking of a bed, and Baekhyun cringed, body tensing in an effort to make himself seem as small as possible.
“Wu Fan ge,” moaned the mystery voice through the wall and Baekhyun jumped a little when there came the sharp sound of flesh being slapped. The other voice moaned again, sounding ragged, “More - please - “
There was another slap and a cry of, “God, daddy, harder - “ and Baekhyun had decided he absolutely had to leave that second. He would explain somehow to Chanyeol tomorrow - though if the other boy had only been trying to get into his pants…
The thought was more anxiety-inducing than it probably should have been for a twenty-two-year-old male who was good friends with someone like Jongin, but the idea of Chanyeol’s hands anywhere near the inside of his pants was twice as terrifying as it was arousing, and while Baekhyun was definitely attracted to Chanyeol, he was so inexperienced that it was embarrassing. There was possibly nothing Baekhyun dreaded more than being embarrassed.
In an attempt to escape, Baekhyun began to try and wiggle out from under Chanyeol. It was an almost impossible task, the other boy wound around him like an octopus, and when he’d finally managed to free an arm, the world suddenly flipped as Chanyeol rolled over, pulling Baekhyun with him.
“Oof!” he said, having ended up sprawled across Chanyeol’s chest and he tensed when the other boy’s eyes fluttered open at the sound. Of course, Baekhyun thought disconsolately, now he decides to wake up.
“Mmm, Baekhyunnie,” he mumbled, voice thick with sleep and eyes foggy. The loud sound of a headboard hitting a wall started up in the other room, and Chanyeol turned his ear towards it, scoffing unimpressedly. Leaning his head down, he pressed a soft kiss to the skin just in front of Baekhyun’s ear and then snuggled back into his pillow, smiling happily. One of Chanyeol’s hands had moved to Baekhyun’s neck, thumb brushing little absent circles at the base of his spinal column. With his ear pressed against Chanyeol’s chest like this, Baekhyun could hear his heartbeat thrumming away, skin warm and soft against his cheek.
Either the sounds from the next room had finished or Baekhyun had become engrossed with the rhythm of Chanyeol’s pulse, trying to fit it to the tempo of some music that he had played to help him remember it, but soon, he was drifting back to sleep, any anxiety from before already forgotten.
The next morning, Baekhyun sat on the edge of Chanyeol’s bed for almost ten minutes trying to decide if he should wake the other boy or not before he left. Chanyeol slept carelessly, limbs thrown every-which-way and his mouth slightly open, and it shouldn’t have been endearing, but it was.
Finally, he reached out a hand and poked Chanyeol’s shoulder, bare skin hot under his fingertip. Chanyeol snorted a little, eyelids fluttering before he focused on Baekhyun blearily. “Are you leaving?”
Baekhyun fiddled with a fold in the comforter. “I have to go practice while the building is empty.”
“But I promised you breakfast!” Chanyeol’s voice was rough with sleep and when Baekhyun pressed a palm to his chest to stop him from getting up, he could feel the vibrations through his ribcage.
“It’s still really early. You don’t have to get up.”
Chanyeol glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table, eyes widening as he saw what time it was. “You have to practice now? On a Saturday?”
“The music building is open 24-hours and I have a lot to get done today.”
He went to stand up but Chanyeol stopped him, fingers curling around his wrist. “Let me buy you breakfast anyway. Later? If we meet at the cafe around ten that still gives you enough time, right?”
Baekhyun thought of the large pile of music waiting for him on his desk back at his apartment. If he left for breakfast, he’d have to go back later to finish preparing for his lesson on Monday.
Chanyeol was looking at him hopefully, hair wild from sleep as he circled his thumb on the back of Baekhyun’s hand.
Baekhyun bit his lip. “Okay.”
A smile broke out over Chanyeol’s face, fingers tightening on Baekhyun’s wrist to pull him in for a kiss. Smacking Chanyeol’s shoulder to get away, Baekhyun pulled back, saying, “God, your morning breath is awful! What on earth lives in your mouth?”
“Wouldn’t you like to find out?” Chanyeol waggled his eyebrows and Baekhyun huffed, pulling his wrist out of his grasp. Pouting, Chanyeol said, “Don’t forget: ten o’clock at the cafe.”
“I won’t.” Baekhyun made his way over to the door, and when he turned back to look, Chanyeol had already fallen back asleep, arms sprawled out over his pillow like a jointless doll. He definitely wasn’t the prettiest sleeper, that was for sure, but Baekhyun thought he might like him anyway.
Baekhyun’s fingers were still warm from playing by the time he walked into the cafe, only a few minutes late and he craned his neck in search of Chanyeol.
“Hey,” Chanyeol’s voice came from behind, and Baekhyun turned to see the taller boy walking through the door. Spring had finally come outside, meaning that everyone had finally been able to put away their heavy coats, hats and scarves, and so Chanyeol was wearing a sweater instead. His hair looked like it was still damp from the shower and that smell, whatever smell it was that Baekhyun always noticed when he was around, wrapped around him like a glove.
Chanyeol tugged at the bottom of Baekhyun’s jacket teasingly before looking over his head. His smile faltered slightly.
“What?” Baekhyun asked, concerned.
Chanyeol shook his head. “Nothing. My friends are just here is all.”
Baekhyun’s head whipped around, eyes landing on the table of four boys, Luhan waving enthusiastically at them.
“I don’t know how I forgot that we all decided to meet here this morning,” Chanyeol muttered, frowning. “If you want I can just - “
“No, it’s fine. We can sit with them. I don’t mind.” Well, he kind of did, the typical anxiety beginning to simmer in his chest at the thought of interacting with almost strangers, but the sight of a frown on Chanyeol’s lips pushed him to agree.
“If you’re sure…” Baekhyun nodded again, and Chanyeol pushed him in the direction of his friends, ignoring his protests and saying, “I’ll get the coffee and everything, don’t worry.”
As he made his way over, Baekhyun thought that it wasn’t the coffee he was worried about. The first time he had met Chanyeol’s friends, back at Yixing’s party, had been a little awkward, and while he had seen them a couple of times between now and then, he definitely still felt a little uncomfortable around them. The exception was Luhan, who spent enough time with Sehun for Baekhyun to realize that the older boy probably liked just about everyone.
“Hey guys,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “Is it okay if I…?”
He gestured to the empty chair next to Zitao and the boy shrugged, smiling at him pleasantly. Baekhyun sat down, letting out a breath when Luhan immediately engaged him in conversation.
Next to him, Zitao was shifting from side to side, eyes trained on the doors as though he were waiting for someone to come through them. Just a ways away from the cafe entrance, Chanyeol was waiting in line for the register and he caught Baekhyun’s eye, giving him a small wave and a thumbs up.
Luhan was in the middle of asking him a question when the doors opened and Baekhyun felt Zitao go motionless beside him for a moment.
“Duizhang!” Zitao called, waving at the person that had just come into the cafe, and the realization hit Baekhyun like a freight train.
That voice. He recognized that voice.
He watched Wu Fan walk over, frozen by the realization. Baekhyun suddenly recalled Chanyeol saying, Wu Fan’s out with his - with Zitao. If Wu Fan had been out with Zitao last night, and it had been Zitao’s voice that he had overheard through Chanyeol’s stupid paper-thin walls -
Baekhyun could feel his face beginning to heat as everything came flooding back to him. The moans, the springs of the mattress squeaking, the rhythmic pounding of the headboard.
Wu Fan smiled at him, nodding to everyone else around the table and slipping off his jacket.
To Baekhyun’s horror, the memories kept coming, the sound of skin being slapped and the other voice, Zitao’s voice, pleading around the word “daddy”. He felt himself being to panic at the thought of what Wu Fan would do if he ever found out that he had overheard. It wasn’t even his fault! The last thing Baekhyun wanted to know was that Zitao’s freaky bedroom name for Wu Fan was -
“Mind switching seats?” Wu Fan said, pointing to another vacant chair on the other side of the table, next to Jongdae.
Baekhyun sputtered slightly over the words, unable to stop his mind from running at a hundred miles an hour about the kinky sex life of Chanyeol’s roommate. “No, it’s all yours, dadd - I mean Wu Fan.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Baekhyun saw Zitao’s jaw drop, Luhan’s eyes going wide across the table, and he shut his own eyes tight for a moment, wishing he had the ability to teleport himself somewhere else, anywhere but here because how could he have been so stupid.
Wu Fan stared at him, mouth pulled tight and Baekhyun thought if he stayed here any longer, he might die on the spot. He fumbled for his phone, putting it up to his ear.
“What? Junmyeon-hyung?” Baekhyun said urgently into the dead phone, feigning a response to “Junmyeon”. “Something bad happened? No, no, I’ll be right there!” He shoved the phone back into his pocket without even bothering to pretend to end the call and stood up. “Sorry, guys I have a - I have to go.”
Clumsily maneuvering himself around the table and past a still scowling Wu Fan, he made to leave and heard Luhan say, sounding confused, “But your phone didn’t even ring…”
On his way towards the door, Baekhyun ran into Chanyeol, who was walking back to the table with their drinks in his hands.
“I have a thing,” Baekhyun stuttered, knowing that the embarrassment was still turning his cheeks red. “Sorry. I forgot until just now. I’ll see you - “
He had already started walking again but Chanyeol stopped him by the arm. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, I just - “ He glanced back at the table, where Wu Fan was sitting down next to Zitao and Jongdae, Yixing and Minseok were laughing about something uproariously, “really need to go.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced but bent down and brushed his lips against Baekhyun’s, sucking lightly on his lower lip before pulling back. “I’ll call you later.”
“Yeah,” he breathed as Chanyeol pressed his coffee cup into his hand, fingers warm from the drink. “Um, next time I’ll treat you instead. Or something.”
“I’ll hold you to that!” Chanyeol squeezed his free hand and walked off to go join his friends. Baekhyun did not watch him walk away sadly, but he did wonder what Wu Fan would say if Chanyeol asked why he looked like he wanted to punch someone in the face.
“So are you guys together or what?”
Baekhyun scowled at Jongin as he flopped down next to him on the couch in he and Junmyeon’s apartment. “Don’t you have a dorm room to go back to?”
“Yes but I like your couch better.” He stole a chip and crunched it loudly in Baekhyun’s ear. “So are you?”
“I - I don’t know.” He had hardly seen Chanyeol in the past week, not, Baekhyun told himself adamantly, because he was avoiding the other man, but because he’d been busy.
“So you guys go out together and kiss and stuff and you’ve slept in his bed, but you’re not together.”
Baekhyun fiddled with the chips bag, crinkling the edges viciously. “I can’t just ask him if he’s my boyfriend.”
Jongin snatched the bag out of his hands, asking, “Have you ever dated anyone before?”
“Of course!” Baekhyun said, offended. “I had a girlfriend back in - “
“If you’re talking about that thing with your piano teacher’s daughter, that doesn’t count.”
He deflated slightly. “Oh. Then not technically.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.” Jongin kicked his feet up on the table as the front door opened, Junmyeon stepping inside and closing it behind him, and there was a sudden pressure in Baekhyun’s head, as though his whole brain were going to implode.
“Oh my god.” He sucked in a breath, remembering Zitao and Wu Fan’s faces after he had slipped up last weekend at the coffee shop and how Yixing, Minseok and Jongdae had laughed as he walked away. “I’m screwing this all up, aren’t I? His friends probably hate me, and I think I drooled on him that time I stayed over and oh my fucking god, I can’t even remember to do my laundry - I can’t do this.” Baekhyun knew his voice was beginning to verge on shrill but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “I can’t be someone’s boyfriend!”
“What’s happening?” Junmyeon asked, slipping off his shoes and stepping into the living room.
“Baekhyun is freaking out about being Chanyeol’s boyfriend.”
Baekhyun tried to take another breath, feeling a bit like he might pass out, and wondered if it was normal that he couldn’t quite feel his face.
Stealing the bag of chips from Jongin, Junmyeon flopped down into the far chair. “You know, Chanyeol seems like a nice guy. You could just talk to him about it. And I’m sure his friends don’t hate you. Luhan likes you at least.”
“Luhan likes everyone,” Jongin said unhelpfully, earning himself a kick in the shin from Junmyeon.
“No, I - “ Baekhyun’s throat was closing up. He had to get out of this room right now or he was going to have a panic attack. “I need to go practice. I have a competition this summer to get ready for.”
He got up, rushing to his room to grab is music, as Junmyeon snapped at Jongin, “Nice going, asshole.”
“It was an honest question!”
“You’re one to talk about relationships anyway,” Junmyeon was scolding as Baekhyun rushed over to the door to put on his shoes. “You and Kyungsoo have been awfully - “
Baekhyun slammed the door behind him, clutching his music books to his chest and heading off towards the music building, trying to calm his furiously beating heart by breathing in the cold night air.
Baekhyun knew from experience that right around hour number four was when the air of the practice room began to feel unbearably stuffy. Leaning back on the piano bench, be cracked his neck and then his fingers, glaring at a passage near the top of the page he had open. The spaces between his fingers were beginning to hurt from being stretched. His hands, even though he had nice long fingers, were not made to play Rachmaninoff.
The Prelude he was playing suited his mood though, and so he let out a breath and started again, this time trying to bring out the center voice more.
“Wow,” said a voice behind him the next time he stopped, and Baekhyun yelled in surprise and nearly fell off the piano bench, clutching his chest as he gasped for air. Chanyeol let out a laugh at his reaction, putting a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder to steady him. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you. You just seemed very… concentrated and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“What are you even doing here?” Baekhyun asked, still trying to get his heart to slow down.
“I went to see you at your apartment but Junmyeon said you’d come here.” He looked down at the concrete practice room floor almost shyly. “I’ve never been in the music building before, so I hope you’re not… mad, or anything.”
“No, you just scared me is all.” The air in the room seemed even hotter now than before, two people breathing instead of one, and Baekhyun was suddenly very aware of how tall Chanyeol was now that he was looking up from his seat on the piano bench. He scooted over a bit. “Wanna sit down?”
Chanyeol traced the spaces between each piano key curiously as he took a seat. “You sounded really good just now.”
Dismissively shaking his head, Baekhyun said, “I’ve been working on this passage for ages and I can’t seem to get the voicing right and I just - my hands are a little small but I know my teacher won’t - “
Chanyeol grabbed his hand as he flailed it around while he spoke. “I said it sounded good, not that I know anything about playing the piano. I did mean it, though.”
“Oh.” He let the compliment sink in, something he didn’t allow to happen very often, and something fluttered in his chest. Chanyeol thought he sounded good. The thought made a smile tug at his lips.
“Are we,” Chanyeol started, looking down at their hands. “Are we okay? I’ve hardly seen you this week and I was wondering if maybe I’d done something wrong.”
The past few days Baekhyun had spent locked away in the practice room ignoring his cell phone, suddenly stood out clearly in his mind and he swallowed guiltily as Chanyeol went on. “Luhan told me what happened at the cafe last weekend.”
“About that: I didn’t mean to - “
“It’s fine. Everyone thought it was hilarious - well, not Wu Fan, but if he doesn’t want people talking about the sex he has, then maybe he should learn to keep it down.” He smiled at Baekhyun reassuringly. “His thing with Zitao is kind of an open secret. You weren’t saying anything everyone didn’t already know.” He thought for a moment, lacing their fingers together absently. “Actually I think Jongdae might even like you more now because of it. He loves to see Wu Fan uncomfortable.”
Baekhyun felt half the tension drain out of his shoulders at Chanyeol’s words, the knowledge that his friends didn’t hate his guts more of a relief that he would admit.
But -
“I’m just…” he tried, picking his words carefully, “not sure about all of this.”
“This?”
“Um.” Baekhyun’s head felt jumbled, the way Chanyeol was softly massaging his sore palm distracting him from all of the reasons why he thought him being someone else’s boyfriend was a bad idea. “I’m just really busy with piano and stuff and I have a competition this summer to work towards, and you know sometimes I don’t do laundry for like a month because I get distracted with a recital or something, and I’m a terrible cook so Junmyeon and I are always getting take-away instead and I’m not pleasant before noo - “
Chanyeol silenced him with a hand over his mouth. “Stop.”
Baekhyun tried to speak against the palm of Chanyeol’s hand anyway, scowling.
“You’re just going to keep trying to convince me that you’d make a bad boyfriend, and I’m not going to let you.” Baekhyun frowned even harder because he was right, damn it, but Chanyeol ignored him. “It’s fine if you don’t want to call yourself that right now, but I’m not going to let you try and talk me out of this. I’m busy too, with studying for the MCAT and everything, so that’s okay.
“But I like you.”
Baekhyun felt his own breath catch. Even though he had heard Chanyeol say that to him before, the fact that someone could like him - him, Byun Baekhyun - still threw him for a loop. Chanyeol looked at him, eyes shiny and mouth soft and vulnerable. “I really like you,” he said again, more quietly. “And I think that you like me too, and I want to try this, whatever it is.”
After a few seconds, he took his hand away and Baekhyun sucked in a breath.
“Is that…” Chanyeol fidgeted with his fingers, suddenly shy again after his confession, “Is that okay with you?”
Chest suddenly heavy, Baekhyun almost whispered, “Yeah. That’s okay.”
A smile started in Chanyeol’s eyes and worked its way down to his mouth and Baekhyun felt himself reciprocate.
They were both quiet for a minute, their confession hanging in the air between them, before Chanyeol looked around the room curiously and said, “So this is where you spend all your time then? It’s not very… cheerful.”
Baekhyun glanced at the white cinderblock walls and concrete floor, all harsh under the halogen light bulbs, and shrugged.
The smile on Chanyeol’s face somehow changed from happy to something a bit more scheming and Baekhyun eyed him warily. Letting go of Baekhyun’s hand, he stood up, looking as though he were walking back towards the door. Baekhyun turned around on the bench.
“Where are you going?” he asked, but Chanyeol just smiled at him again, eyes sparkling a little with amusement at some private joke. Baekhyun had just decided to become annoyed when Chanyeol ended up in front of him, sinking down to his knees on the concrete floor.
“What are you doing?” Baekhyun hissed, alarmed. “You’re going to get your pants dirty!”
Sparing his tight white pants a glance, Chanyeol said carelessly, “Collateral damage.” His hands made their way up Baekhyun’s thighs, fingers skimming the fabric of his own pants and making him shiver.
“Stop,” he said weakly, as Chanyeol finally reached his zipper and Baekhyun realized exactly what he was doing. They couldn’t do this here, in a school practice room!
“I’m just going to give you something happy to think about when you’re stuck in here,” Chanyeol said matter-of-factly, pulling Baekhyun out of his pants and licking his lips. “Is that okay?”
“Y-yeah.” He spread his legs a little to give Chanyeol better access and the boy between them smiled a little at the action.
Baekhyun heard himself moan when the hot skin of his cock met the open air of the practice room and then Chanyeol licked at it experimentally, eyes trained on Baekhyun’s face for his reaction. He closed his mouth around the head, licking again, and Baekhyun reached out to steady himself with a hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder.
When Chanyeol dropped his mouth down, taking more of Baekhyun into his mouth, he let his fingernails dig in, another sound leaving his mouth. Chanyeol hummed around Baekhyun’s cock with satisfaction, starting to lick at as much of him as he could reach and the elbow of Baekhyun’s other arm fell back to support him, landing on the keyboard and causing the piano to let out a loud cluster chord in retaliation.
His moans were echoing around the room, mixing with Chanyeol’s breathing and the loud sucks that accompanied every bob of his head, and when Chanyeol brought another hand up to touch Baekhyun’s balls, he knew he was embarrassingly close. He couldn’t even find his voice to warn Chanyeol, his stomach muscles clenched, thighs quivering and fingers scrabbling at Chanyeol’s shoulder. Then Chanyeol went down as far as he could, sucking until his cheeks were hollow, and when he cradled Baekhyun’s balls in his hand and pulled, he came, pleasure exploding in his belly and up his chest and behind his eyes. Sound dimmed for a second as Chanyeol continued to mouth at him for a few moments until he was finished.
Wiping his mouth, Chanyeol sat back on his heels, smiling up at Baekhyun like he was the cat that had gotten the cream.
That was a disgusting saying, Baekhyun thought absently, as he brought his fingers away from Chanyeol’s shoulder so that he could trace the red outline of Chanyeol’s mouth.
“That was…” he tried, still feeling a little ungrounded in his afterglow.
Chanyeol grabbed the hand Baekhyun had on his face, tangling their fingers and looking up at him fondly. “Now you know there’s something waiting for you when you’re finished practicing in here, okay?”
Baekhyun thought the blow job was probably just a bonus to being able to have Chanyeol around, but he wasn’t about to tell him that. Instead, he said, “So you’re going to be studying a lot. Do you think I’ll need to give you the same reminder in the library?”
Reaching up with his free hand to clasp Baekhyun’s neck and pull him down to his eye level for a kiss, he grinned. “I was kind of hoping you’d say that.”
The best part, Baekhyun ended up deciding, about being with Chanyeol, whatever they were calling it, wasn’t the blow jobs or the late night cuddling, or watching their two groups of friends combine into one big one and stage huge COD tournaments together. It was having Chanyeol slide into the seat next to him at 8AM on Monday morning for their shared math class, the soft sound of a coffee travel cup gliding across the table reaching Baekhyun’s ears.
“Plain coffee, just the way you like it,” Chanyeol whispered into his ear, sliding his fingers down Baekhyun’s wrist until they were holding hands under the table.
Baekhyun smiled at him gratefully, thinking that the only thing this stupid early morning class had been good for was getting him to see Chanyeol more.
Then the teacher called the class to order, saying loudly, “Okay everyone! Review for the final exam next week: Derivatives!”
Baekhyun groaned, flopping his head down onto his notebook, as usual. Instead of comforting him, Chanyeol just laughed and flicked his ear until he sat up again.