Enjoy!

Chanyeol places another rug next to the other clean and dry ones. He continues to huff in annoyance as he washes the endless amount of dishes been thrown at him by Taemin. However, the reason for his huffing and puffing are not the dishes but his smiling and cheeky roommate.

The twenty-two year old man is talking so enthusiastically to Jongin, sipping on his warm coffee from time to time. “What are they even talking about?” rolling his eyes, Chanyeol throws the rag to the side and sighs.

“Who?” Taemin scans the kitchen, startling the poor architect.

The younger raises a brow, seeing how Chanyeol deeply sighs as he composes himself. “No one...” mutters the architect.

Taemin shrugs, kind of annoying the architect. “Hurry up with the dishes. We have more costumers coming in.” Chanyeol’s left eye twitches, clearly annoyed by the new set of dirty dishes in front of him.

“Yah!” Taemin hisses as he stops on his track. “Stop bringing me so many dishes!” but the younger shrugs, yet again, grinning as he finally leaves the architect alone with the dishes. “Yah!” scoffs Chanyeol in disbelief.

Chanyeol isn’t angry at Taemin or at the many dishes been thrown at him. The reason for his annoyance is his roommate. Baekhyun hasn’t been talking to him lately. Heck, Chanyeol is annoyed at everyone. Junmyeon, Jongin and Yixing all of them seem to ignore him.

But why?

The four of them are always changing topics whenever Chanyeol approaches them. They look surprise and startled, especially Baekhyun. But what bothers Chanyeol the most is how quiet and distant Baekhyun has become to him. The younger hardly looks at him.

It is a matter of concern to Chanyeol. The younger used to constantly call him, asked him stupid questions or just annoyed the crap out of him.

So why is Baekhyun being so different now?

Deeply sighing, because that is all that he has been doing lately, Chanyeol decides to leave the rest of the dishes to Taemin. He dries his hands and heads over to where Baekhyun and Jongin are currently sitting at. “This brat!” Chanyeol hisses under his breath when he sees Taemin also talking to Baekhyun and Jongin, laughing and not attending the new costumers like he is supposed to.

All Chanyeol sees is three young men laughing, agreeing to something that he obviously can’t hear. What gathers Chanyeol’s attention the most is a journal. He has seen Baekhyun carrying that journal with him everywhere he goes.

It’s irking the architect. Chanyeol really wants to know what his roommate writes in it. “Maybe he is working on a project...” he stops, truly wondering how good Baekhyun’s work must be. The younger is after all majoring in literature.

“The only thing that I am missing are the balloons and-”

“Hey guys!” Chanyeol stands behind Baekhyun and waves at them. However, the atmosphere turns awkward. – They are at it again! Chanyeol tries to keep the smile on his face, but he is really getting worried over the situation.

Why are they been so secretive?!

Baekhyun slowly turns around to face his roommate. “Yoda!” Chanyeol can swear that Baekhyun looks surprised. He tries to catch a glimpse of what Baekhyun was currently writing on the journal, but Baekhyun quickly closes it.

“You were talking about balloons...?” says the architect, in hopes of starting a conversation and not feel left out again.

“Some school project that Jongin and I are currently working on...” well, at least Baekhyun talked to him. “Right, Jongin...” to which Jongin frowns. He doesn’t know what Baekhyun is talking about.

“Right?” says Jongin, unsure.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, mentally slapping his forehead.

The awkwardness is still present. Chanyeol feels as if they are silently asking him to leave.

Taemin notices how Chanyeol sulks on his spot. He is actually the only one noticing how the secrecy towards the architect is affecting the elder. It kind of makes him want to laugh. The small laugh that escapes his lips doesn’t go unnoticed by Chanyeol.

Chanyeol hopes to find an explanation as to what is going from Taemin. The architect should have known better than to not expect anything from the dancer. With a smirk, Taemin fixes his suspenders and walks away from them. “Yah, you better wash the remaining dishes!”

People stare at Chanyeol. Some of them laugh while others send him weird looks. The architect bows at them. He becomes embarrassed when he spots Baekhyun staring at him with a crooked brow. He sends the younger a sheepish smile before awkwardly storming his way towards the kitchen.

❤❤❤

“What a day...” Chanyeol drags his tired body out of the elevator once the doors slide open. His eyes light up at the sight of his apartment’s door. He had never regretted leaving home till this day. Washing dishes is a hassle, but handling screaming teenagers’ fangirling over him and the others is exhausting.

All he wants to do is shower and passed out on his warm bed. He quickly grabs his keys and unlocks the door. He was about to open the door when he heard laughter coming from inside. It isn’t hard for him to know whose laughter that belongs to. Chanyeol has grown fond of that laugher already, more than he likes to admit.

He smiles.

Chanyeol can already picture Baekhyun’s face and nose cutely scrunching up as he smiles. However, he stops when he remembers how distant and secretive Baekhyun has been to him.

It’s starting to piss him off.

He can quite make up already what will happen once he steps inside. Baekhyun and Jongin will immediately stop what they are doing. They will just ignore him like they have been doing. Baekhyun will hardly even spare him a glance. “Aish....” Chanyeol scratches the back of his neck, debating on whether to go inside or not.

He wonders what he did for everyone to be like that to him.

Baekhyun became a total different person ever since he came back home from Yixing and Junmyeon’s apartment. He became busy by writing down on that stupid journal, secretly talking to others but Chanyeol. “Where else will I go then?” Chanyeol reasons with himself. “This is my apartment as well!”

Sighing, because he feels so stupid, Chanyeol opens the door. “It will be awesome!” he unconsciously ignores the voices and places his coat on the coat rack.

He silently closes the door behind him and removes his shoes. “Yoda!” Baekhyun stands up from the floor, happily hopping his way towards the architect.

However, Chanyeol has been ignored for too long already. He feels hurt and neglected. There are so many things running through his head at the moment that he completely fails to hear or see his roommate next to him. He just walks straight up to his room, leaving Baekhyun staring at his retrieving back with confuse eyes.

Baekhyun turns to his best friend with sulky lips. “He looked tired...” says Jongin. “Anyway, we have everything ready for that old man’s birthday party. I still think that you are going overboard with it, but Chanyeol will like it.”

“I... truly hope so...” a small smile leaves Baekhyun’s still pouty lips. “I just don’t want him to feel lonely ever again. Birthdays are supposed to make you happy not sad.”

– There is only one reason as to why Chanyeol hates celebrating his birthday. That is the day were he feels the loneliest. His parents were never present, always busy with work. His last birthday party was when he turned 14. He hasn’t had a birthday since then.

Junmyeon’s words are still present inside of Baekhyun’s head. “I am proud of you, Baekhyunnie. You are such a nice person. I am sure that Chanyeol will love it.” Baekhyun lets his best friend ruffle his hair, smiling.

That is all Baekhyun wants. He wants to change that part of Chanyeol’s life. He wants to erase all of Chanyeol’s bad memories and replace them with good ones.

❤❤❤

Sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, Baekhyun stares at the hall that leads to his and Chanyeol’s room. A loud sigh escapes his lips when he sees what time it is. “He probably didn’t eat anything for dinner.”

He shakes his head as he stands up from the cold floor. It’s late and he has school to attend in just a few hours. However, the hallway lights up. Baekhyun smiles when sees the architect walking towards the kitchen, yawning. “...Hey...” Chanyeol’s startle eyes meet Baekhyun’s.

The architect wasn’t expecting to find Baekhyun so late at night still awake. The two of them actually become rather awkward. Having Baekhyun’s full attention on Chanyeol just makes him feel weird. Okay, Chanyeol might be over exaggerating, but three days of Baekhyun just being plain weird and distant have passed already.

Three long days!

However, Chanyeol doesn’t know that Baekhyun’s odd behavior is because of the surprise birthday party that he is organizing for him. Moreover, Chanyeol doesn’t know that Baekhyun already knows why he hates celebrating his birthday.

There is an awkward silence invading the living room. Baekhyun doesn’t know what to make out of Chanyeol’s earlier behavior. The elder never ignores him. “...Hey...” Chanyeol clears his throat.

Yeah, they are definitely awkward.

The awkwardness is too much that it sends Baekhyun into a giggling fit. He erupts into laughter because he is only now realizing that he hasn’t spoken to the elder in days. His fear of spilling everything out to Chanyeol set an invisible wall between them.

The architect tries to keep a straight face, but hearing Baekhyun’s laughter is rather contagious. “What’s so funny?” Chanyeol asks with a serious face despite wanting to laugh as well. “How come are you still awake? Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

Baekhyun finds himself nodding. “Not sleepy. What about you...”

“The hunger kind of woke me up.”

“I knew it!” the architect raises a brow. It was o