CHINGUX 2014: sweeter than a song, brighter than the sun (1/1) for back_hug
Title: sweeter than a song, brighter than the sun
Author: sunlit
Recipient: back_hug
Pairing: Baekhyun/Kyungsoo
Rating: G
Warnings: -
Length: 6,005 w.
Summary: Kyungsoo transfers to a new school where capes are optional but strongly encouraged, and favourite people are surprisingly easy to come by.
In the fifteen minutes it took for Do Kyungsoo to be escorted from the school office to his new classroom on the second floor, he'd very nearly been run over by two groups of students barreling through the corridors in a game of chase, been glared at by a very intimidating lady who looked like she'd had bad cereal for breakfast, and been the subject of many curious glares and whispers from passing children.
Public schools were scary, Kyungsoo concluded.
"Don't worry," his homeroom teacher had reassured him, adjusting the collar of his new school uniform - too new, too tight, chaffing at the skin of his neck. She was a young woman in her twenties, as graceful and gentle as a dove. Her long auburn hair reminded Kyungsoo of autumns past, her voice as sweet as spring. "You'll be just fine. First days are always the scariest, but the class is really nice, and I'm positive you'll fit in."
Kyungsoo scuffed his shoes against the tiled floor; the soft off-white was soothing to the eyes, but they did next to nothing to calm his nerves. 2-2, written in bold, bright white letters against a black signage, loomed above him next to the closed door of the classroom. Even when standing on tippy toes, Kyungsoo's fingers barely grazed the corner of the sign.
Everything felt too big for an eight-year-old (and neither had he grown over winter vacation). Almost as if by instinct, Kyungsoo folded his arms across his chest.
He could hear the homeroom teacher's voice through the door; she'd told him to stay outside until she called for him. "This morning, I have some very exciting news for us - we have a new friend joining us today," she announced enthusiastically, the end of her sentence drowned by an excited buzz of chatter. Kyungsoo felt like he'd just swallowed a ball of yarn, something his kitten at home is terribly wont to do at times.
A girl's shout of, "Seonsaengnim, I wanna meet him!" was echoed by a chorus of voices chiming in agreement, an odd rhythm of sorts. Kyungsoo counted twenty-three heartbeats before their teacher shushed them into silence again.
"Well then, let me introduce you to Do Kyungsoo." She raised her voice somewhat, and Kyungsoo knew this was his cue. "You can come in now!"
Kyungsoo squeezed his eyes shut, cool air flooding his nose as he clenched and unclenched his fists by his side. Go hard or go home, he recalled. That's what they say in those movies Seungsoo-hyung always watches, right…? Stilling his trembling fingers with a deep exhale, he slowly slid the door open.
To say he had expectations before seeing the classroom proper would be a lie of sorts, since Kyungsoo really hadn't been anticipating anything, but Grade 2, Class 2's homeroom looked an exact replica of the ones he'd seen in the anime he used to watch. Bright sunlight filtered through the glass-panelled windows, bookcases laden with all kinds of books lined a reading corner, the long blackboard was dusted with a thin layer of chalk, his classmates as sprightly as their teacher was gentle.
Kyungsoo could feel the weight of at least twenty pairs of eyes on him as he shuffled from the door to stand awkwardly in front of the teacher's desk. Even the excited burst of chatter that rippled through the room didn't soften the thumping of his heart in his ears.
Hands clasped neatly in front of him, Kyungsoo bowed deeply, the way his mother told him he should. "H-Hello, my name is Do Kyungsoo. I'm from Gyeonggi-do, and I-" He could've sworn he had an entire speech eloquently written out in his head just before bedtime yesterday, but the words seemed to have left him in cruel abandonment, the remaining pieces of his coherence twisting around his tongue. He felt a hand on his shoulder, warm and encouraging, and chanced a glance up at his homeroom teacher, still smiling encouragingly. "I… I still have a lot to learn, s-so… please take care of me," he finished hastily.
Silence blanketed the air for a moment, weighed down by nothing but blinking eyes and a sense of curiosity so poignant Kyungsoo could feel it latching onto his skin, before the entirety of the classroom erupted with shouted questions and calls of welcome and probably a few other things, although Kyungsoo couldn't hear much over the din.
"How is it like in Gyeonggi-do?! I've never been there before!"
"What're your favourite subjects?"
"Kyungsoo-yah, your hair's so fluffy!"
Just then, a loud voice boomed through the classroom, crystal clear even over the noise, almost too deep to be a second grader. "I want to be friends with him first!"
Kyungsoo scooted closer to their homeroom teacher, taken aback by the sheer volume of the voice. If it was anything he disliked, it was loud people. Why couldn't everyone just be quiet sometimes? His gaze landed on a boy in the back row, tall and lanky for his age, waving a hand enthusiastically at him. The boy's eyes were a pretty shade of brown, Kyungsoo could see, but they were anything but gentle - bleeding fire, energy, trouble.
"Now, now." Their homeroom teacher laughed amiably, taking advantage of the temporary silence to speak. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for all of you to get to know Kyungsoo. He'll be with us from here on out, after all. Be nice to him and help him out if he doesn't know his way around, okay, everyone?" His new classmates unanimously voiced their acquiescence.
He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, wishing more than anything to be at home, curled up with the book he'd bought at the fair last weekend, or maybe even his crossword puzzles. "Let's see now; are there any free seats…" his teacher's voice trailed off.
Kyungsoo scanned the room with her and finds the lone empty seat close to the back of the class, right next to the bookcases. By his reckoning, it'd be the perfect vantage point to gaze out at the humongous tree right next to their school building. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so ba-
"He can sit here with me, seonsaengnim!"
Kyungsoo's gaze fell on the speaker, the boy sitting next to his soon-to-be desk - long black bangs, eyes as bright as the smile on his face. The boy looked like an overly-eager puppy, almost bouncing in his seat as he grinned at Kyungsoo. Too loud, too outgoing, too intrusive, the exact kind of person Kyungsoo never wanted to associate with.
Their homeroom teacher, though, seemed to disagree. "Ah, yes. There, next to Baekhyun." She gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper in a voice soft enough for only him to hear. "You'll make fast friends with him; he's a very nice boy."
Kyungsoo had to bite back a stop looking at me and a grimace when he slinks into his seat; Baekhyun's eyes had never once left him, and he pushed all too close the moment Kyungsoo's bag was safely deposited onto the hook next to his desk. "You're so tiny and cute, please be my friend? Let's have lunch together, okay? Don't be scared of me, I don't bite, I promise! I don't have cookies but I-"
Even his voice was too shrill for Kyungsoo to bear.
"Class is starting," was the most polite response Kyungsoo could give this boy - no, Baekhyun. Grunting in frustration, he rubbed his temples, pulled out his literature textbook, tore his gaze away from Baekhyun's enthusiastic face.
Despite his curt response (and to his disappointment), Baekhyun's enthusiasm showed no signs of curbing.
Scratch that. Public schools were very scary.
Armed with nothing but his very heavy schoolbag and a pitifully wrinkled copy of the school map, Kyungsoo had wrestled his way out of the crowd of classmates that had surrounded his desk during free period. Their enthusiasm and the warm welcome he'd received had been admirable enough, but all he'd wanted was to read when the teacher wasn't around. He hadn't gotten to read more than three lines, though.
"Let's see," he mumbled under his breath. Kyungsoo had managed to find his way to the reading pavilions on the other side of the school grounds, substantially less populated during lunch compared to the main compound. From where he stood, on a small raised cliff overlooking the school, Kyungsoo could see children milling around the benches by the field, eating out of their lunchboxes or doing homework.
Patting the ground to make sure the grass wasn't wet, Kyungsoo sank onto the soft earth and watched them contentedly, his hair and the leaves of the trees above him rustling as one in the wind. Gyeongshin Elementary was pleasant enough; a reasonably new school, Kyungsoo had heard, known for its generous sports facilities. The brochures didn't lie - he could see the soccer field in the middle of the school compound, the running track, the volleyball court.
This was something he could get used to, Kyungsoo decided as he fished his packed lunch from his schoolbag. People-watching or reading in this serene spot, in his very own quiet place-
A loud yell pierced the peaceful silence. "Ah! Someone found our secret lair!"
Kyungsoo whirled around, so alarmed he nearly dropped his chopsticks, and met face-to-face with the tall boy he'd seen in class this morning. Up close, he looked even bigger than Kyungsoo remembered - broad shoulders and long legs and hands so big they looked like they could smother Kyungsoo if the boy tried.
"Hi, hi," a lazy voice came up behind the boy. A smaller figure this time, another boy, this one with a carefree expression and a grin that curled like a kitten's. Kyungsoo recognised him as someone from class, but failed to put a name to the face. "Oh, if it isn't the transfer student. Welcome to our humble abode!" he exclaimed cheerfully.
Kyungsoo nearly jumped out of his skin when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his waist, somebody's chin on his shoulder and somebody's breath fanning over the nape of his neck. "He's not 'the transfer student', his name is Kyungsoo!" somebody huffed. It was a voice Kyungsoo knew only all too well now, after answering about a dozen questions from this person alone during free period.
"Get off me!" Kyungsoo hissed, shrugging out from under the arm and glaring at Baekhyun. "Why are you here?"
Baekhyun dropped to the ground and sat cross-legged, digging around in his bag for what Kyungsoo can only assume was his lunch. "Well, this is kinda our lunchtime hangout spot," Baekhyun sing-songs cheerfully, almond eyes disappearing into crescent moons as he flashed a grin. "We like coming here because no one's ever around."
Kyungsoo made a poorly-concealed attempt at restraining himself from burying his face in his hands, and produced a sound that felt like a cross between a croak and a growl.
Small Boy who'd appeared behind Big Boy raised an eyebrow as he took the spot next to Baekhyun. "You guys know each other so well already?" he asked sadly. "You didn't introduce us, that isn't fair!"
Baekhyun clapped his hands together, his face lighting up as if he'd only just realised something. "I totally forgot," he admitted sheepishly to Small Boy. "I've been with him all morning and it just felt like everyone knows him like I do."
"You don't know me," Kyungsoo protested, but the words are drowned out by Big Boy's loud voice. It reminded Kyungsoo of a microphone - a very effective one, at that. "I said I wanted to be friends with him first but no one listened to me," he whined, plucking tufts of grass out from the ground and pouting at Baekhyun.
Kyungsoo had to duck as a piece of egg roll whooshes past his head in Big Boy's direction. "You're just jealous you didn't get to sit with him," Baekhyun said smugly, before turning to Kyungsoo. Pointing towards Big Boy with his chopsticks, he began the introductions. "This is Park Chanyeol, and the one next to him," his hand swivels around to point at Small Boy, "is Kim Jongdae. We've been friends since kindergarten!"
Kyungsoo chanced a glance up at each of their faces in turn - Chanyeol's fiery one, Jongdae's coy one, Baekhyun's cheerful one - then stared at a pebble like it was the most interesting thing ever to walk the face of the earth. "I'm Kyungsoo," he grudgingly said, poking at a ball of rice with his chopsticks.
The idea of transferring to a public school in the middle of bustling, happening Seoul was almost unthinkable - having to adapt to a lifestyle that was so startlingly different from his time in private school. Kyungsoo was prepared for noisy people, loud people, annoying people, and had solemnly sworn to himself the day before school started to keep away from them and focus on studies, but this- This feels… Kyungsoo struggled to find the right word, wading through his conflicting emotions.
All through lunch break, he let the three of them do the talking, chatting eagerly amongst themselves and occasionally attempting to rope Kyungsoo into the conversation, whilst he preferred to hang back in silence. He couldn't very well ask them to leave, so he decided he'd just try to finish lunch faster and leave.
"… and then apparently Minseok-sunbae hit Sehunnie on the head with a dodgeball and he passed out, and I mean it was an accident, but thwack!" Jongdae pummeled a fist against an open hand for good measure, before continuing, "That sounded like it hurt, guys. Never mess with 4-1's dodgeball team."
Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly, speaking through a mouthful of rice balls and crab rolls. "Doesn't matter, I'm not on the dodgeball team."
While Jongdae and Chanyeol wrestled on the ground, Jongdae arguing that "best friends should care if their best friends are going through life-threatening problems!", Kyungsoo sighed and packed up his things. Perhaps he could find somewhere else to read, he'd have to look at the school plan again - anywhere but here.
Strong but gentle fingers tugged on his wrist as he made to leave. "Don't leave!" Baekhyun pleaded, and for a split second, Kyungsoo could picture puppy ears deflating on his head. It was a painfully adorable image. Seeing as Kyungsoo was neither shrugging him off nor coming closer, Baekhyun continues on proudly, "Since you found our secret lair, you're one of us now."
In his distraction, Kyungsoo hadn't noticed that the other two had stopped fighting and were nodding in approval at Baekhyun's words. He sputtered a bit - he didn't want to be one of them, they were far too loud for his liking.
Baekhyun's smile seemed to grow brighter, if that was possible, when he fixed it on Kyungsoo's face again. He brandished something he'd taken from his schoolbag, a bright blue piece of cloth folded neatly into a square, and knotted it loosely around Kyungsoo's neck. "We have capes! I don't have an extra so you can have mine first!" he chirped, stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Now you have access to our super special, super secret lab too, but make sure you keep it a secret, okay! It's just us four!"
Kyungsoo stuttered weakly, tripping over his words, before abruptly grabbing his schoolbag and yanking the 'cape' off. "I-I don’t want to be part of this dumb lab thing!" he cried out, frustration and confusion bubbling over into his words.
As he stalked off towards the school compound, he stared at the blue cape in his hands. It was a pretty shade of blue, just like the sky. It didn't really hold a finger to Baekhyun's smile, though - that one reminded Kyungsoo of the sun. Maybe that was why his cheeks felt so hot. Yes, probably.
The following weeks were a toss-up between Kyungsoo adapting- he'd familiarised himself with the subway map, memorised the route to school, walked around the compound and blocks enough to not need the floor plan of the school anymore. The workload was considerably heavier than that of his old school, although Kyungsoo couldn't say he'd expected any less. He'd transferred in at a very convenient and exciting time, his homeroom teacher had told him one day as he helped her carry the class' report books to her desk, since the school festival was around the corner.
-and refusing to adapt; weeks into the trimester and he was still shutting down Baekhyun's advances, his stupid, stupid 'plans' to 'fortify their secret lair'. For some reason, Park Giraffe and Kim Jongduck had taken to sniggering pointedly at him every time he shushed, admonished or shrugged Baekhyun off, and he couldn't quite figure out why. Baekhyun was like one of those candles Jongin had stuck in Junmyeon's birthday cake two years past back in Gyeonggi-do - the kind that wouldn't extinguish no matter how much you blew at them; sometimes, even water didn't work all that well against them.
(But for some reason - and Kyungsoo would never divulge this to anyone, even if they asked nicely - he never stopped going back to the cliff for lunch. He just liked the reading pavilions is all, definitely not the company.)
Safe to say, he'd been horrified the day their homeroom teacher had told them the school festival was around the corner and they'd have to split into teams to man the different booths the class would be setting up. Kyungsoo had been gunning for the mini-café selling traditional sweets, partly because it was indoors and it was generally going to be quieter, anything but the ice-cream truck, anything but the ice-cream truck, anything but-
"Kyungsoo, you'll be doing the ice-cream truck with Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae, okay? They have experience from the last school festival, so I'm sure they'll show you the ropes," she'd said cheerfully. Their homeroom teacher had been the one person Kyungsoo could never stay angry at for long or openly protest against, so he'd settled with glowering at a very-excited Baekhyun.
Their first meeting to lay out the plans for their ice-cream truck had been in the library, and all four of them had promptly been ejected by the librarian on duty for being too noisy.
Their second had, at least, lasted longer than fifteen minutes, because it was in an empty classroom, but Park Idiot Giraffe had accidentally-on-purpose spilled an entire canister of glitter glue onto two rows of desks. That had gotten them escorted into detention, in which Baekhyun insisted they wear their capes because it was a special mission entrusted to them.
Kyungsoo had wanted to pull his hair out, but settled for throwing his blue cape right in Baekhyun's face. He'd smiled triumphantly, savouring the disoriented expression on Baekhyun's face right after, but then Baekhyun had grinned back at him, as bright and happy as ever, and said, "You kept the cape!" That had turned Kyungsoo's smile upside down.
"How on earth did all of you even run an ice-cream truck last year?!" Kyungsoo had blurted out angrily as they left the detention room, sore that he would now have a black spot on his student record, and it wasn't even his fault.
Jongdae blinked at him like he'd just asked a high school math question. "The school provided the ice-cream truck, so we got on it." Chanyeol nodded and picked up the mantle. "And then we scooped ice-cream for people."
They'd been disinclined to have any further meetings after that, partly because the class tests had been coming up, and subsequently, the track meet. Back in Gyeonggi-do, Kyungsoo was a regular on the track team, something that had carried over to Gyeongshin Elementary. The coach had told him his times were good enough to qualify for the finals, so he'd ended up skipping the preliminary heats and being registered directly for the competition.
"You're really amazing, aren't you?"
Kyungsoo blinked the icy water out of his eyes as he turned off the tap, running a towel through his damp hair and meeting Byun Baekhyun's eyes. Baekhyun was dressed in their athletics uniform as well, although Kyungsoo knew he wasn't going to be running - Baekhyun was a high jumper, and a very talented one at that. "At this rate, you'll be competing with the seniors in no time!" he chirped happily, handing Kyungsoo a bottle of water.
"You'll be trying out for the classical music competition too, won't you?"
Kyungsoo nodded.
"Ah, then we have our exams after the school festival… but you came out tops in the last class quiz, right?"
Kyungsoo nodded again.
"Jongdae told me he saw you sign up for the archery club, too! Is it true?"
Baekhyun's next question was cut off by a faceful of towel, Kyungsoo pinning him in place with a cold glare. He'd suffered enough of this; Baekhyun was always talking to him about anything and everything under the sun whenever he can - during lunch break, during sports practice, when they bump into each other at the school gates. It had been somewhat bearable at first, but then the questions never stopped, and Kyungsoo had only wanted to quiet place to read the day they met- "Why are you always asking so many questions?"
In all honesty, Kyungsoo had expected Baekhyun to grin and give him some cheeky answer, like he always did. To be fair, Baekhyun did smile, but not the way he always did. He smiled a small smile this time, a little quirk of his lips that looked a bit sad and terribly out of place, so much so that it caught Kyungsoo off-guard.
"I want to know you better," Baekhyun said simply, folding the towel that had been thrown at him into a neat little square, the same way he folded his cape. "Mom always says that you just have to find the right words to say or ask the right question and people would answer… so I'm trying to find the right one for you."
Kyungsoo was never good with words, but to have them robbed from him in broad daylight was something unheard of.
Baekhyun fidgeted around with the hem of his shirt, smoothing out the creases he'd gotten from the tumble he took earlier on the soccer field, and took Kyungsoo's silence as a green light to continue. "You're really, really amazing. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not… ah, de… deser…" Baekhyun's eyebrows came together in an awkward(ly adorable) V-shape, his bottom lip jutting out as he racked his brain for the right word. "Deser…ving…? Yeah, I think that's it. Um, yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm not deserving enough to be your friend."
The smile he smiled after was definitely intended as sheepish, but Kyungsoo can see pencilled sadness and wistfulness in crayons.
"I… don't like noisy people," was Kyungsoo's mumbled reply. "You're really noisy."
Baekhyun's laughter was a bit lighter as he handed Kyungsoo his towel again. When their fingers brushed, Kyungsoo remembered what he learnt in science - people could experience brief and tiny electric shocks due to static. The textbook never explained what it meant, and if it was normal for somebody's heart to start beating a bit faster after that.
A chuckle escaped Baekhyun's lips, the notes rimmed with his usual confidence again. "I'll make you like me, though. I'll be your favourite noisy person."
Kyungsoo never quite believed his mother when she'd told him the weather forecast always lies. Today, at least, she was right - the newscaster this morning had read that it would be sunny the whole day through, and the skies, with its clear blue expanse and fluffy white clouds, had seemed to concur, but it was raining so heavily in the evening that Kyungsoo had no idea how he was to get home unless he waited for the rain to subside.
He dug around his bag one last time, just to see if he would perchance have remembered to pack a foldable umbrella with him, but no such luck. Kyungsoo waited by the threshold of the school entrance, peering out at the thick blanket of intimidating grey clouds in the hopes of seeing a sign that it would clear up soon. The only greeting he received in turn was the cold spray of rain on his face and a rumble of thunder.
"Hey there, favourite quiet person," came a voice behind him. Kyungsoo didn't even need to turn around to know who it was - only one person ever called him that.
Byun Baekhyun sidled up next to him, all wrapped up in a parka at least two sizes too big for him, swinging a bright yellow umbrella around by the handle.
Kyungsoo let out a huff of frustration. "I told you not to call me that," he warned for the umpteenth time in the trimester, but if it was anything Kyungsoo had noticed lately, it would be that his replies were growing less and less menacing. They were still as curt and snappish as ever, but there was no bite to his voice anymore. It was as if he was slowly giving up the fight, laying down his sword when it wasn't even half over.
"But I like the name," Baekhyun laughed, the carefree, tinkling laugh that Kyungsoo decided would go very well with a piano. It was music on its own. "Nicknames mean I like you, you know."
As if in response, the wind slowed down, caressing Kyungsoo's cheek and toying with the fluttering locks of Baekhyun's hair. It was cold out, colder than any day it'd been all spring, but Kyungsoo felt the tips of his ears grow warm. I like you. It sounded nice in Baekhyun's voice; that was all there was to it.
Baekhyun studied him for a good long while, and just when Kyungsoo was about to snap at him, to tell him to stop staring like he was trying to decipher what Kyungsoo was thinking, like he was trying to delve into Kyungsoo's heart to see what went on in there, Baekhyun handed him the umbrella. "Here," he said, so suddenly that Kyungsoo blinked at him, waiting for a continuation that never came.
"W-What about it?" he asked, only belatedly realising how ridiculous his question had been.
Baekhyun chortled. "Take the umbrella home. You look like you're going to need it, unless you want to wait here till dinnertime." He snuggled deeper into the folds of his parka, and for a split second, it looked like he was melting into the material. Kyungsoo bit back the urge to bundle Baekhyun up in his arms like an actual puppy.
"What about you?" Kyungsoo allowed himself a curious question. Baekhyun made him curious all the time, turned his weakness against him. "How're you going to get home?"
Baekhyun took one look at the sky and hopped out into the rain, droplets of water catching on his hair where the parka couldn't cover him. "I'll run! My favourite quiet person shouldn't get wet!"
Favourite. Kyungsoo liked the sound of that, too.
"Turn right, turn left, then take two right turns, walk straight, take a left turn and you're there!" Jongdae had said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, but Kyungsoo had lost count of how many times he's turned right and left and taken the wrong turn.
Baekhyun's house was in a neighbourhood Kyungsoo would likely never visit if he didn't have anything to do there - not a posh residential area per se, but definitely upper class, full of winding paths that twist through the area and around the houses. Chanyeol had offered to write him the directions, but Kyungsoo had insisted that Jongdae's verbal ones would do - a decision he had come to regret.
The day was as sunny as it could be - sparkling clear blue skies that shone down on Kyungsoo, sunlight that beat down on his skin. The yellow umbrella he was carrying - Baekhyun's yellow umbrella - was a welcome weight in his hand nevertheless. He allowed himself a smile, hiding his eyes behind his bangs.
Stupid, stupid Byun Baekhyun.
Kyungsoo had gotten home safe enough the evening Baekhyun had lent him his umbrella, mostly sheltered from the rain. After double-checking for any homework he might have missed, Kyungsoo had taken extra care to dry and pack the umbrella properly to return it to its proper owner the next day, only to have their homeroom teacher tell the class that Baekhyun had called in sick and would only be back within two or three days, depending on his condition.
"He's down with a cold," Chanyeol had explained matter-of-factly over lunch, mouth full with orange juice and his bacon sandwich. "When he called me this morning, he said he ran through the rain yesterday, and that's how he fell sick."
Jongdae snorts somewhat disdainfully, reaching over to nick a rice ball off Kyungsoo's lunchbox. "Well, Baekhyun's an idiot. He's always been super sensitive to rain; I don't even know why he did that."
It had taken all of Kyungsoo's willpower not to take his frustration out on Chanyeol and Jongdae, who probably had no idea what had happened the previous evening. If he's an idiot, which he is, Kyungsoo had thought to himself, worrying his bottom lip, then he's a really nice idiot.
A large red postbox loomed up ahead, snapping Kyungsoo out of his reverie. Jongdae's directions had been difficult to keep up with, but the one landmark Kyungsoo remembered clearest was the red postbox that was apparently directly opposite Baekhyun's house. He continued the walk along the street, tightening his grip on the umbrella, wondering what on earth he should say once he got to the gate.
Idiot, come get your umbrella? Hi, may I speak to Byun Baekhyun, please? Is Baekhyun in; I'm a friend? The thoughts ran around in Kyungsoo's head like a broken anthill, bouncing around the insides of his mind.
Kyungsoo was so preoccupied with thoughts that he scarcely realised he'd arrived outside Baekhyun's house, a modest double-story unit that looked as beautiful as it was homely. The gate was too high for Kyungsoo to peer over, but through the white wooden fencing, he could see a small pond dotted with the telltale oranges and blacks of koi fish, a lawn of freshly-mown green grass, the occasional toy strewn on the grass.
Summoning all his courage, Kyungsoo lifted a finger to the doorbell, pressed it, waited for a voice to reach him through the intercom. "Who is it?" The voice was scratchy, chaffed by medicine and hours of disuse, but it was still a voice Kyungsoo knew like the back of his hand now. Always curious, always intruding, but soft and kind.
"It's me, Kyungsoo," he said, standing on tiptoe to reach the intercom microphone. Then, against his better judgment, he added, "Your favourite quiet person." The heat that exploded through his face made him want to burrow a hole in the flowerbed and never emerge from it ever again.
Baekhyun sounded more surprised than Kyungsoo had ever heard him. "O-Oh. Um, give me a sec, okay, I'll be right there!" he said hurriedly, the sound of rushing footsteps audible over the intercom. Kyungsoo had wanted to tell him he could come in, wanted to tell him not to run and overexert himself because he needs to come back to school. To me.
It wasn't five minutes later that the gate opened with a creak; Baekhyun emerged from behind the metal in pastel green pajamas, so innocent they made him look half a baby in it. "Hi," he said, after a pause, as if he'd been searching for the right word but had exhausted himself trying to find it.
On the bus ride here, Kyungsoo had crafted a hundred things to say. Are you feeling better now? Thank you for lending me your umbrella, I got home safely. Get well soon, Baekhyun. Instead, the only thing that slips past his lips was, "You're the biggest idiot I've ever known, Byun Baekhyun," he chastised with no real bite in his voice.
When Baekhyun only chuckled in response, a cough punctuating his nasally laughter, Kyungsoo had turned a fiery glare onto him. "Why did you lend me your umbrella if you knew you couldn't stand the rain? You're so stupid, you went and got yourself sick, I-" It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't returned the umbrella to Baekhyun, so he presses the handle into Baekhyun's hand and curls his fingers around the plastic. "Here, your umbrella."
Baekhyun's gaze moved to rest on him as he leaned against the umbrella, anchored safely to the ground at its point. "I said I didn't want my favourite quiet person to fall sick. I meant it."
The smile he sent Kyungsoo's way was enough to break his heart five times over - the same smile that never faltered no matter how many times Kyungsoo told him to stay away, the same smile that made cloudy days feel brighter and sunny days even sunnier, the same smile that made Baekhyun Baekhyun.
"You're dumb," Kyungsoo groaned, heat rising in his cheeks again. In a moment of weakness, he rested his forehead against Baekhyun's shoulder, feeling the warmth radiate off his skin. The worst of the storm had passed, at least; Baekhyun might still be suffering side effects, but the fever itself was gone. Kyungsoo nibbled his bottom lip. Go hard or go home, he still remembered thinking this to himself on the first day of school. "You never go away no matter how many times I tell you to."
Baekhyun lifted his free hand to the back of Kyungsoo's head, gently stroking his hair. "I like being around you. I said I was going to make you like me one day, even if I'm noisy," he proclaimed proudly, still as confident as ever.
It occurred to Kyungsoo, suddenly, that he didn't know when it started for real, but the walls he'd put up to keep Baekhyun out had long begun to crumble. "You're my favourite dumb noisy person, Byun Baekhyun," he grumbled, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his lips together into a tight line, clinging to Baekhyun's pajamas. "You don't have to make me like you, I already do."
For the longest time, only the soft trickling of water in the pond, the rustle of grass, and the muffled sound of voices from inside the house reached them both. Baekhyun slowly pulled away from him, pleasant surprise and triumph and happiness swirling about in his eyes.
"Well then," he said, as if still at a loss for words. Gently, cautiously, like someone catching a cherry blossom petal in the wind, Baekhyun took both his hands. "Favourite quiet person, do you want to stay for dinner? Mom makes really great food, and we always have extra."
Kyungsoo couldn't help but crack a smile - a small one, but a smile nonetheless. It seemed to make Baekhyun's eyes sparkle that much more.
"Okay, favourite noisy person."
("So will you wear the cape at the school festival?"
"No."
"Can your nametag say 'favourite quiet person'?"
"No."
Baekhyun had only laughed in response. When Kyungsoo stole a glance at Baekhyun, his cheeks were red. Perhaps the fever hadn't really worn off. Perhaps it was something else, the start of something new.)
Author's Note: Hello, back_hug! This fic is actually a combination of all three of your prompts, since I could picture them all working in the same universe. :) The style and premise of this fic were interesting to write because I don't usually write them, so I just really want to thank you for the opportunity to try something new! I hope you enjoyed this ♥
Author: sunlit
Recipient: back_hug
Pairing: Baekhyun/Kyungsoo
Rating: G
Warnings: -
Length: 6,005 w.
Summary: Kyungsoo transfers to a new school where capes are optional but strongly encouraged, and favourite people are surprisingly easy to come by.
In the fifteen minutes it took for Do Kyungsoo to be escorted from the school office to his new classroom on the second floor, he'd very nearly been run over by two groups of students barreling through the corridors in a game of chase, been glared at by a very intimidating lady who looked like she'd had bad cereal for breakfast, and been the subject of many curious glares and whispers from passing children.
Public schools were scary, Kyungsoo concluded.
"Don't worry," his homeroom teacher had reassured him, adjusting the collar of his new school uniform - too new, too tight, chaffing at the skin of his neck. She was a young woman in her twenties, as graceful and gentle as a dove. Her long auburn hair reminded Kyungsoo of autumns past, her voice as sweet as spring. "You'll be just fine. First days are always the scariest, but the class is really nice, and I'm positive you'll fit in."
Kyungsoo scuffed his shoes against the tiled floor; the soft off-white was soothing to the eyes, but they did next to nothing to calm his nerves. 2-2, written in bold, bright white letters against a black signage, loomed above him next to the closed door of the classroom. Even when standing on tippy toes, Kyungsoo's fingers barely grazed the corner of the sign.
Everything felt too big for an eight-year-old (and neither had he grown over winter vacation). Almost as if by instinct, Kyungsoo folded his arms across his chest.
He could hear the homeroom teacher's voice through the door; she'd told him to stay outside until she called for him. "This morning, I have some very exciting news for us - we have a new friend joining us today," she announced enthusiastically, the end of her sentence drowned by an excited buzz of chatter. Kyungsoo felt like he'd just swallowed a ball of yarn, something his kitten at home is terribly wont to do at times.
A girl's shout of, "Seonsaengnim, I wanna meet him!" was echoed by a chorus of voices chiming in agreement, an odd rhythm of sorts. Kyungsoo counted twenty-three heartbeats before their teacher shushed them into silence again.
"Well then, let me introduce you to Do Kyungsoo." She raised her voice somewhat, and Kyungsoo knew this was his cue. "You can come in now!"
Kyungsoo squeezed his eyes shut, cool air flooding his nose as he clenched and unclenched his fists by his side. Go hard or go home, he recalled. That's what they say in those movies Seungsoo-hyung always watches, right…? Stilling his trembling fingers with a deep exhale, he slowly slid the door open.
To say he had expectations before seeing the classroom proper would be a lie of sorts, since Kyungsoo really hadn't been anticipating anything, but Grade 2, Class 2's homeroom looked an exact replica of the ones he'd seen in the anime he used to watch. Bright sunlight filtered through the glass-panelled windows, bookcases laden with all kinds of books lined a reading corner, the long blackboard was dusted with a thin layer of chalk, his classmates as sprightly as their teacher was gentle.
Kyungsoo could feel the weight of at least twenty pairs of eyes on him as he shuffled from the door to stand awkwardly in front of the teacher's desk. Even the excited burst of chatter that rippled through the room didn't soften the thumping of his heart in his ears.
Hands clasped neatly in front of him, Kyungsoo bowed deeply, the way his mother told him he should. "H-Hello, my name is Do Kyungsoo. I'm from Gyeonggi-do, and I-" He could've sworn he had an entire speech eloquently written out in his head just before bedtime yesterday, but the words seemed to have left him in cruel abandonment, the remaining pieces of his coherence twisting around his tongue. He felt a hand on his shoulder, warm and encouraging, and chanced a glance up at his homeroom teacher, still smiling encouragingly. "I… I still have a lot to learn, s-so… please take care of me," he finished hastily.
Silence blanketed the air for a moment, weighed down by nothing but blinking eyes and a sense of curiosity so poignant Kyungsoo could feel it latching onto his skin, before the entirety of the classroom erupted with shouted questions and calls of welcome and probably a few other things, although Kyungsoo couldn't hear much over the din.
"How is it like in Gyeonggi-do?! I've never been there before!"
"What're your favourite subjects?"
"Kyungsoo-yah, your hair's so fluffy!"
Just then, a loud voice boomed through the classroom, crystal clear even over the noise, almost too deep to be a second grader. "I want to be friends with him first!"
Kyungsoo scooted closer to their homeroom teacher, taken aback by the sheer volume of the voice. If it was anything he disliked, it was loud people. Why couldn't everyone just be quiet sometimes? His gaze landed on a boy in the back row, tall and lanky for his age, waving a hand enthusiastically at him. The boy's eyes were a pretty shade of brown, Kyungsoo could see, but they were anything but gentle - bleeding fire, energy, trouble.
"Now, now." Their homeroom teacher laughed amiably, taking advantage of the temporary silence to speak. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for all of you to get to know Kyungsoo. He'll be with us from here on out, after all. Be nice to him and help him out if he doesn't know his way around, okay, everyone?" His new classmates unanimously voiced their acquiescence.
He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, wishing more than anything to be at home, curled up with the book he'd bought at the fair last weekend, or maybe even his crossword puzzles. "Let's see now; are there any free seats…" his teacher's voice trailed off.
Kyungsoo scanned the room with her and finds the lone empty seat close to the back of the class, right next to the bookcases. By his reckoning, it'd be the perfect vantage point to gaze out at the humongous tree right next to their school building. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so ba-
"He can sit here with me, seonsaengnim!"
Kyungsoo's gaze fell on the speaker, the boy sitting next to his soon-to-be desk - long black bangs, eyes as bright as the smile on his face. The boy looked like an overly-eager puppy, almost bouncing in his seat as he grinned at Kyungsoo. Too loud, too outgoing, too intrusive, the exact kind of person Kyungsoo never wanted to associate with.
Their homeroom teacher, though, seemed to disagree. "Ah, yes. There, next to Baekhyun." She gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper in a voice soft enough for only him to hear. "You'll make fast friends with him; he's a very nice boy."
Kyungsoo had to bite back a stop looking at me and a grimace when he slinks into his seat; Baekhyun's eyes had never once left him, and he pushed all too close the moment Kyungsoo's bag was safely deposited onto the hook next to his desk. "You're so tiny and cute, please be my friend? Let's have lunch together, okay? Don't be scared of me, I don't bite, I promise! I don't have cookies but I-"
Even his voice was too shrill for Kyungsoo to bear.
"Class is starting," was the most polite response Kyungsoo could give this boy - no, Baekhyun. Grunting in frustration, he rubbed his temples, pulled out his literature textbook, tore his gaze away from Baekhyun's enthusiastic face.
Despite his curt response (and to his disappointment), Baekhyun's enthusiasm showed no signs of curbing.
Scratch that. Public schools were very scary.
Armed with nothing but his very heavy schoolbag and a pitifully wrinkled copy of the school map, Kyungsoo had wrestled his way out of the crowd of classmates that had surrounded his desk during free period. Their enthusiasm and the warm welcome he'd received had been admirable enough, but all he'd wanted was to read when the teacher wasn't around. He hadn't gotten to read more than three lines, though.
"Let's see," he mumbled under his breath. Kyungsoo had managed to find his way to the reading pavilions on the other side of the school grounds, substantially less populated during lunch compared to the main compound. From where he stood, on a small raised cliff overlooking the school, Kyungsoo could see children milling around the benches by the field, eating out of their lunchboxes or doing homework.
Patting the ground to make sure the grass wasn't wet, Kyungsoo sank onto the soft earth and watched them contentedly, his hair and the leaves of the trees above him rustling as one in the wind. Gyeongshin Elementary was pleasant enough; a reasonably new school, Kyungsoo had heard, known for its generous sports facilities. The brochures didn't lie - he could see the soccer field in the middle of the school compound, the running track, the volleyball court.
This was something he could get used to, Kyungsoo decided as he fished his packed lunch from his schoolbag. People-watching or reading in this serene spot, in his very own quiet place-
A loud yell pierced the peaceful silence. "Ah! Someone found our secret lair!"
Kyungsoo whirled around, so alarmed he nearly dropped his chopsticks, and met face-to-face with the tall boy he'd seen in class this morning. Up close, he looked even bigger than Kyungsoo remembered - broad shoulders and long legs and hands so big they looked like they could smother Kyungsoo if the boy tried.
"Hi, hi," a lazy voice came up behind the boy. A smaller figure this time, another boy, this one with a carefree expression and a grin that curled like a kitten's. Kyungsoo recognised him as someone from class, but failed to put a name to the face. "Oh, if it isn't the transfer student. Welcome to our humble abode!" he exclaimed cheerfully.
Kyungsoo nearly jumped out of his skin when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his waist, somebody's chin on his shoulder and somebody's breath fanning over the nape of his neck. "He's not 'the transfer student', his name is Kyungsoo!" somebody huffed. It was a voice Kyungsoo knew only all too well now, after answering about a dozen questions from this person alone during free period.
"Get off me!" Kyungsoo hissed, shrugging out from under the arm and glaring at Baekhyun. "Why are you here?"
Baekhyun dropped to the ground and sat cross-legged, digging around in his bag for what Kyungsoo can only assume was his lunch. "Well, this is kinda our lunchtime hangout spot," Baekhyun sing-songs cheerfully, almond eyes disappearing into crescent moons as he flashed a grin. "We like coming here because no one's ever around."
Kyungsoo made a poorly-concealed attempt at restraining himself from burying his face in his hands, and produced a sound that felt like a cross between a croak and a growl.
Small Boy who'd appeared behind Big Boy raised an eyebrow as he took the spot next to Baekhyun. "You guys know each other so well already?" he asked sadly. "You didn't introduce us, that isn't fair!"
Baekhyun clapped his hands together, his face lighting up as if he'd only just realised something. "I totally forgot," he admitted sheepishly to Small Boy. "I've been with him all morning and it just felt like everyone knows him like I do."
"You don't know me," Kyungsoo protested, but the words are drowned out by Big Boy's loud voice. It reminded Kyungsoo of a microphone - a very effective one, at that. "I said I wanted to be friends with him first but no one listened to me," he whined, plucking tufts of grass out from the ground and pouting at Baekhyun.
Kyungsoo had to duck as a piece of egg roll whooshes past his head in Big Boy's direction. "You're just jealous you didn't get to sit with him," Baekhyun said smugly, before turning to Kyungsoo. Pointing towards Big Boy with his chopsticks, he began the introductions. "This is Park Chanyeol, and the one next to him," his hand swivels around to point at Small Boy, "is Kim Jongdae. We've been friends since kindergarten!"
Kyungsoo chanced a glance up at each of their faces in turn - Chanyeol's fiery one, Jongdae's coy one, Baekhyun's cheerful one - then stared at a pebble like it was the most interesting thing ever to walk the face of the earth. "I'm Kyungsoo," he grudgingly said, poking at a ball of rice with his chopsticks.
The idea of transferring to a public school in the middle of bustling, happening Seoul was almost unthinkable - having to adapt to a lifestyle that was so startlingly different from his time in private school. Kyungsoo was prepared for noisy people, loud people, annoying people, and had solemnly sworn to himself the day before school started to keep away from them and focus on studies, but this- This feels… Kyungsoo struggled to find the right word, wading through his conflicting emotions.
All through lunch break, he let the three of them do the talking, chatting eagerly amongst themselves and occasionally attempting to rope Kyungsoo into the conversation, whilst he preferred to hang back in silence. He couldn't very well ask them to leave, so he decided he'd just try to finish lunch faster and leave.
"… and then apparently Minseok-sunbae hit Sehunnie on the head with a dodgeball and he passed out, and I mean it was an accident, but thwack!" Jongdae pummeled a fist against an open hand for good measure, before continuing, "That sounded like it hurt, guys. Never mess with 4-1's dodgeball team."
Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly, speaking through a mouthful of rice balls and crab rolls. "Doesn't matter, I'm not on the dodgeball team."
While Jongdae and Chanyeol wrestled on the ground, Jongdae arguing that "best friends should care if their best friends are going through life-threatening problems!", Kyungsoo sighed and packed up his things. Perhaps he could find somewhere else to read, he'd have to look at the school plan again - anywhere but here.
Strong but gentle fingers tugged on his wrist as he made to leave. "Don't leave!" Baekhyun pleaded, and for a split second, Kyungsoo could picture puppy ears deflating on his head. It was a painfully adorable image. Seeing as Kyungsoo was neither shrugging him off nor coming closer, Baekhyun continues on proudly, "Since you found our secret lair, you're one of us now."
In his distraction, Kyungsoo hadn't noticed that the other two had stopped fighting and were nodding in approval at Baekhyun's words. He sputtered a bit - he didn't want to be one of them, they were far too loud for his liking.
Baekhyun's smile seemed to grow brighter, if that was possible, when he fixed it on Kyungsoo's face again. He brandished something he'd taken from his schoolbag, a bright blue piece of cloth folded neatly into a square, and knotted it loosely around Kyungsoo's neck. "We have capes! I don't have an extra so you can have mine first!" he chirped, stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Now you have access to our super special, super secret lab too, but make sure you keep it a secret, okay! It's just us four!"
Kyungsoo stuttered weakly, tripping over his words, before abruptly grabbing his schoolbag and yanking the 'cape' off. "I-I don’t want to be part of this dumb lab thing!" he cried out, frustration and confusion bubbling over into his words.
As he stalked off towards the school compound, he stared at the blue cape in his hands. It was a pretty shade of blue, just like the sky. It didn't really hold a finger to Baekhyun's smile, though - that one reminded Kyungsoo of the sun. Maybe that was why his cheeks felt so hot. Yes, probably.
The following weeks were a toss-up between Kyungsoo adapting- he'd familiarised himself with the subway map, memorised the route to school, walked around the compound and blocks enough to not need the floor plan of the school anymore. The workload was considerably heavier than that of his old school, although Kyungsoo couldn't say he'd expected any less. He'd transferred in at a very convenient and exciting time, his homeroom teacher had told him one day as he helped her carry the class' report books to her desk, since the school festival was around the corner.
-and refusing to adapt; weeks into the trimester and he was still shutting down Baekhyun's advances, his stupid, stupid 'plans' to 'fortify their secret lair'. For some reason, Park Giraffe and Kim Jongduck had taken to sniggering pointedly at him every time he shushed, admonished or shrugged Baekhyun off, and he couldn't quite figure out why. Baekhyun was like one of those candles Jongin had stuck in Junmyeon's birthday cake two years past back in Gyeonggi-do - the kind that wouldn't extinguish no matter how much you blew at them; sometimes, even water didn't work all that well against them.
(But for some reason - and Kyungsoo would never divulge this to anyone, even if they asked nicely - he never stopped going back to the cliff for lunch. He just liked the reading pavilions is all, definitely not the company.)
Safe to say, he'd been horrified the day their homeroom teacher had told them the school festival was around the corner and they'd have to split into teams to man the different booths the class would be setting up. Kyungsoo had been gunning for the mini-café selling traditional sweets, partly because it was indoors and it was generally going to be quieter, anything but the ice-cream truck, anything but the ice-cream truck, anything but-
"Kyungsoo, you'll be doing the ice-cream truck with Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae, okay? They have experience from the last school festival, so I'm sure they'll show you the ropes," she'd said cheerfully. Their homeroom teacher had been the one person Kyungsoo could never stay angry at for long or openly protest against, so he'd settled with glowering at a very-excited Baekhyun.
Their first meeting to lay out the plans for their ice-cream truck had been in the library, and all four of them had promptly been ejected by the librarian on duty for being too noisy.
Their second had, at least, lasted longer than fifteen minutes, because it was in an empty classroom, but Park Idiot Giraffe had accidentally-on-purpose spilled an entire canister of glitter glue onto two rows of desks. That had gotten them escorted into detention, in which Baekhyun insisted they wear their capes because it was a special mission entrusted to them.
Kyungsoo had wanted to pull his hair out, but settled for throwing his blue cape right in Baekhyun's face. He'd smiled triumphantly, savouring the disoriented expression on Baekhyun's face right after, but then Baekhyun had grinned back at him, as bright and happy as ever, and said, "You kept the cape!" That had turned Kyungsoo's smile upside down.
"How on earth did all of you even run an ice-cream truck last year?!" Kyungsoo had blurted out angrily as they left the detention room, sore that he would now have a black spot on his student record, and it wasn't even his fault.
Jongdae blinked at him like he'd just asked a high school math question. "The school provided the ice-cream truck, so we got on it." Chanyeol nodded and picked up the mantle. "And then we scooped ice-cream for people."
They'd been disinclined to have any further meetings after that, partly because the class tests had been coming up, and subsequently, the track meet. Back in Gyeonggi-do, Kyungsoo was a regular on the track team, something that had carried over to Gyeongshin Elementary. The coach had told him his times were good enough to qualify for the finals, so he'd ended up skipping the preliminary heats and being registered directly for the competition.
"You're really amazing, aren't you?"
Kyungsoo blinked the icy water out of his eyes as he turned off the tap, running a towel through his damp hair and meeting Byun Baekhyun's eyes. Baekhyun was dressed in their athletics uniform as well, although Kyungsoo knew he wasn't going to be running - Baekhyun was a high jumper, and a very talented one at that. "At this rate, you'll be competing with the seniors in no time!" he chirped happily, handing Kyungsoo a bottle of water.
"You'll be trying out for the classical music competition too, won't you?"
Kyungsoo nodded.
"Ah, then we have our exams after the school festival… but you came out tops in the last class quiz, right?"
Kyungsoo nodded again.
"Jongdae told me he saw you sign up for the archery club, too! Is it true?"
Baekhyun's next question was cut off by a faceful of towel, Kyungsoo pinning him in place with a cold glare. He'd suffered enough of this; Baekhyun was always talking to him about anything and everything under the sun whenever he can - during lunch break, during sports practice, when they bump into each other at the school gates. It had been somewhat bearable at first, but then the questions never stopped, and Kyungsoo had only wanted to quiet place to read the day they met- "Why are you always asking so many questions?"
In all honesty, Kyungsoo had expected Baekhyun to grin and give him some cheeky answer, like he always did. To be fair, Baekhyun did smile, but not the way he always did. He smiled a small smile this time, a little quirk of his lips that looked a bit sad and terribly out of place, so much so that it caught Kyungsoo off-guard.
"I want to know you better," Baekhyun said simply, folding the towel that had been thrown at him into a neat little square, the same way he folded his cape. "Mom always says that you just have to find the right words to say or ask the right question and people would answer… so I'm trying to find the right one for you."
Kyungsoo was never good with words, but to have them robbed from him in broad daylight was something unheard of.
Baekhyun fidgeted around with the hem of his shirt, smoothing out the creases he'd gotten from the tumble he took earlier on the soccer field, and took Kyungsoo's silence as a green light to continue. "You're really, really amazing. Sometimes, I feel like I'm not… ah, de… deser…" Baekhyun's eyebrows came together in an awkward(ly adorable) V-shape, his bottom lip jutting out as he racked his brain for the right word. "Deser…ving…? Yeah, I think that's it. Um, yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm not deserving enough to be your friend."
The smile he smiled after was definitely intended as sheepish, but Kyungsoo can see pencilled sadness and wistfulness in crayons.
"I… don't like noisy people," was Kyungsoo's mumbled reply. "You're really noisy."
Baekhyun's laughter was a bit lighter as he handed Kyungsoo his towel again. When their fingers brushed, Kyungsoo remembered what he learnt in science - people could experience brief and tiny electric shocks due to static. The textbook never explained what it meant, and if it was normal for somebody's heart to start beating a bit faster after that.
A chuckle escaped Baekhyun's lips, the notes rimmed with his usual confidence again. "I'll make you like me, though. I'll be your favourite noisy person."
Kyungsoo never quite believed his mother when she'd told him the weather forecast always lies. Today, at least, she was right - the newscaster this morning had read that it would be sunny the whole day through, and the skies, with its clear blue expanse and fluffy white clouds, had seemed to concur, but it was raining so heavily in the evening that Kyungsoo had no idea how he was to get home unless he waited for the rain to subside.
He dug around his bag one last time, just to see if he would perchance have remembered to pack a foldable umbrella with him, but no such luck. Kyungsoo waited by the threshold of the school entrance, peering out at the thick blanket of intimidating grey clouds in the hopes of seeing a sign that it would clear up soon. The only greeting he received in turn was the cold spray of rain on his face and a rumble of thunder.
"Hey there, favourite quiet person," came a voice behind him. Kyungsoo didn't even need to turn around to know who it was - only one person ever called him that.
Byun Baekhyun sidled up next to him, all wrapped up in a parka at least two sizes too big for him, swinging a bright yellow umbrella around by the handle.
Kyungsoo let out a huff of frustration. "I told you not to call me that," he warned for the umpteenth time in the trimester, but if it was anything Kyungsoo had noticed lately, it would be that his replies were growing less and less menacing. They were still as curt and snappish as ever, but there was no bite to his voice anymore. It was as if he was slowly giving up the fight, laying down his sword when it wasn't even half over.
"But I like the name," Baekhyun laughed, the carefree, tinkling laugh that Kyungsoo decided would go very well with a piano. It was music on its own. "Nicknames mean I like you, you know."
As if in response, the wind slowed down, caressing Kyungsoo's cheek and toying with the fluttering locks of Baekhyun's hair. It was cold out, colder than any day it'd been all spring, but Kyungsoo felt the tips of his ears grow warm. I like you. It sounded nice in Baekhyun's voice; that was all there was to it.
Baekhyun studied him for a good long while, and just when Kyungsoo was about to snap at him, to tell him to stop staring like he was trying to decipher what Kyungsoo was thinking, like he was trying to delve into Kyungsoo's heart to see what went on in there, Baekhyun handed him the umbrella. "Here," he said, so suddenly that Kyungsoo blinked at him, waiting for a continuation that never came.
"W-What about it?" he asked, only belatedly realising how ridiculous his question had been.
Baekhyun chortled. "Take the umbrella home. You look like you're going to need it, unless you want to wait here till dinnertime." He snuggled deeper into the folds of his parka, and for a split second, it looked like he was melting into the material. Kyungsoo bit back the urge to bundle Baekhyun up in his arms like an actual puppy.
"What about you?" Kyungsoo allowed himself a curious question. Baekhyun made him curious all the time, turned his weakness against him. "How're you going to get home?"
Baekhyun took one look at the sky and hopped out into the rain, droplets of water catching on his hair where the parka couldn't cover him. "I'll run! My favourite quiet person shouldn't get wet!"
Favourite. Kyungsoo liked the sound of that, too.
"Turn right, turn left, then take two right turns, walk straight, take a left turn and you're there!" Jongdae had said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, but Kyungsoo had lost count of how many times he's turned right and left and taken the wrong turn.
Baekhyun's house was in a neighbourhood Kyungsoo would likely never visit if he didn't have anything to do there - not a posh residential area per se, but definitely upper class, full of winding paths that twist through the area and around the houses. Chanyeol had offered to write him the directions, but Kyungsoo had insisted that Jongdae's verbal ones would do - a decision he had come to regret.
The day was as sunny as it could be - sparkling clear blue skies that shone down on Kyungsoo, sunlight that beat down on his skin. The yellow umbrella he was carrying - Baekhyun's yellow umbrella - was a welcome weight in his hand nevertheless. He allowed himself a smile, hiding his eyes behind his bangs.
Stupid, stupid Byun Baekhyun.
Kyungsoo had gotten home safe enough the evening Baekhyun had lent him his umbrella, mostly sheltered from the rain. After double-checking for any homework he might have missed, Kyungsoo had taken extra care to dry and pack the umbrella properly to return it to its proper owner the next day, only to have their homeroom teacher tell the class that Baekhyun had called in sick and would only be back within two or three days, depending on his condition.
"He's down with a cold," Chanyeol had explained matter-of-factly over lunch, mouth full with orange juice and his bacon sandwich. "When he called me this morning, he said he ran through the rain yesterday, and that's how he fell sick."
Jongdae snorts somewhat disdainfully, reaching over to nick a rice ball off Kyungsoo's lunchbox. "Well, Baekhyun's an idiot. He's always been super sensitive to rain; I don't even know why he did that."
It had taken all of Kyungsoo's willpower not to take his frustration out on Chanyeol and Jongdae, who probably had no idea what had happened the previous evening. If he's an idiot, which he is, Kyungsoo had thought to himself, worrying his bottom lip, then he's a really nice idiot.
A large red postbox loomed up ahead, snapping Kyungsoo out of his reverie. Jongdae's directions had been difficult to keep up with, but the one landmark Kyungsoo remembered clearest was the red postbox that was apparently directly opposite Baekhyun's house. He continued the walk along the street, tightening his grip on the umbrella, wondering what on earth he should say once he got to the gate.
Idiot, come get your umbrella? Hi, may I speak to Byun Baekhyun, please? Is Baekhyun in; I'm a friend? The thoughts ran around in Kyungsoo's head like a broken anthill, bouncing around the insides of his mind.
Kyungsoo was so preoccupied with thoughts that he scarcely realised he'd arrived outside Baekhyun's house, a modest double-story unit that looked as beautiful as it was homely. The gate was too high for Kyungsoo to peer over, but through the white wooden fencing, he could see a small pond dotted with the telltale oranges and blacks of koi fish, a lawn of freshly-mown green grass, the occasional toy strewn on the grass.
Summoning all his courage, Kyungsoo lifted a finger to the doorbell, pressed it, waited for a voice to reach him through the intercom. "Who is it?" The voice was scratchy, chaffed by medicine and hours of disuse, but it was still a voice Kyungsoo knew like the back of his hand now. Always curious, always intruding, but soft and kind.
"It's me, Kyungsoo," he said, standing on tiptoe to reach the intercom microphone. Then, against his better judgment, he added, "Your favourite quiet person." The heat that exploded through his face made him want to burrow a hole in the flowerbed and never emerge from it ever again.
Baekhyun sounded more surprised than Kyungsoo had ever heard him. "O-Oh. Um, give me a sec, okay, I'll be right there!" he said hurriedly, the sound of rushing footsteps audible over the intercom. Kyungsoo had wanted to tell him he could come in, wanted to tell him not to run and overexert himself because he needs to come back to school. To me.
It wasn't five minutes later that the gate opened with a creak; Baekhyun emerged from behind the metal in pastel green pajamas, so innocent they made him look half a baby in it. "Hi," he said, after a pause, as if he'd been searching for the right word but had exhausted himself trying to find it.
On the bus ride here, Kyungsoo had crafted a hundred things to say. Are you feeling better now? Thank you for lending me your umbrella, I got home safely. Get well soon, Baekhyun. Instead, the only thing that slips past his lips was, "You're the biggest idiot I've ever known, Byun Baekhyun," he chastised with no real bite in his voice.
When Baekhyun only chuckled in response, a cough punctuating his nasally laughter, Kyungsoo had turned a fiery glare onto him. "Why did you lend me your umbrella if you knew you couldn't stand the rain? You're so stupid, you went and got yourself sick, I-" It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't returned the umbrella to Baekhyun, so he presses the handle into Baekhyun's hand and curls his fingers around the plastic. "Here, your umbrella."
Baekhyun's gaze moved to rest on him as he leaned against the umbrella, anchored safely to the ground at its point. "I said I didn't want my favourite quiet person to fall sick. I meant it."
The smile he sent Kyungsoo's way was enough to break his heart five times over - the same smile that never faltered no matter how many times Kyungsoo told him to stay away, the same smile that made cloudy days feel brighter and sunny days even sunnier, the same smile that made Baekhyun Baekhyun.
"You're dumb," Kyungsoo groaned, heat rising in his cheeks again. In a moment of weakness, he rested his forehead against Baekhyun's shoulder, feeling the warmth radiate off his skin. The worst of the storm had passed, at least; Baekhyun might still be suffering side effects, but the fever itself was gone. Kyungsoo nibbled his bottom lip. Go hard or go home, he still remembered thinking this to himself on the first day of school. "You never go away no matter how many times I tell you to."
Baekhyun lifted his free hand to the back of Kyungsoo's head, gently stroking his hair. "I like being around you. I said I was going to make you like me one day, even if I'm noisy," he proclaimed proudly, still as confident as ever.
It occurred to Kyungsoo, suddenly, that he didn't know when it started for real, but the walls he'd put up to keep Baekhyun out had long begun to crumble. "You're my favourite dumb noisy person, Byun Baekhyun," he grumbled, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing his lips together into a tight line, clinging to Baekhyun's pajamas. "You don't have to make me like you, I already do."
For the longest time, only the soft trickling of water in the pond, the rustle of grass, and the muffled sound of voices from inside the house reached them both. Baekhyun slowly pulled away from him, pleasant surprise and triumph and happiness swirling about in his eyes.
"Well then," he said, as if still at a loss for words. Gently, cautiously, like someone catching a cherry blossom petal in the wind, Baekhyun took both his hands. "Favourite quiet person, do you want to stay for dinner? Mom makes really great food, and we always have extra."
Kyungsoo couldn't help but crack a smile - a small one, but a smile nonetheless. It seemed to make Baekhyun's eyes sparkle that much more.
"Okay, favourite noisy person."
("So will you wear the cape at the school festival?"
"No."
"Can your nametag say 'favourite quiet person'?"
"No."
Baekhyun had only laughed in response. When Kyungsoo stole a glance at Baekhyun, his cheeks were red. Perhaps the fever hadn't really worn off. Perhaps it was something else, the start of something new.)
Author's Note: Hello, back_hug! This fic is actually a combination of all three of your prompts, since I could picture them all working in the same universe. :) The style and premise of this fic were interesting to write because I don't usually write them, so I just really want to thank you for the opportunity to try something new! I hope you enjoyed this ♥