Chanyeol eyed the flimsy piece of paper in his hand, dread seeping into his veins. That couldn’t be right, could it? There had to be a mistake. The price at the top of the page had to be wrong. His apartment’s rent had never been that high, had it? .

                He ran his hand through his silver hair, going through his options. He barely had enough in his bank account to get himself through this month, and he had even cut back his spending. Well, maybe he hadn’t cut back that much but whatever.

Maybe he could get another job! His parents would just love that. Haha, not today mom, Chanyeol thought to himself sheepishly. He was already working as a barista at the local “indie” coffee shop. Between that and university, he barely had time for his extremely hectic social life. Ahem.

There was no way in hell he was moving out of his apartment into a cheaper place either. His parents had thrown a fit when he decided to live in an apartment off campus instead of the cheaper dorms that were in fact, on campus. But Chanyeol had fallen in love with his apartment and absolutely hated the tiny dorms and the joint bathrooms. To pay rent he had gotten a job and had been living here since the beginning of his sophomore year. It was now the end of February and Chanyeol was very much broke.

Chanyeol sighed. There was only one solution. It was a solution that Chanyeol dreaded with every fiber of his being. He would have to refer to plan x. The last resort.

Park Chanyeol would have to find a roommate.

\(~U~)/

It had been a week, and no one had responded to his roommate plea. He put a notice up on the school’s forum and had printed out flyers to stick all over campus. He made sure to tell everyone he knew that he was looking for a roommate, but no one seemed interested. It was now 8pm on Sunday and all day he had literally just been sitting on his couch eating cereal just staring at his front door. Someone would knock right? There had to be one unfortunate college student in desperate need of housing right?

Knock knock

Chanyeol froze, dropping his spoon. Could it be? He scrambled to his feet and straightened his t-shirt. I really hope this isn’t some creep. Maybe I should have put my phone number on the flyers instead of my address… what if it’s a murderer? PARK CHANYEOL WHAT IF YOU JUST INVITED A MURDERER TO YOUR SAFE HOMELY HOUSE?

                Knock knock

He took a deep breath. It won’t be a murderer. It’s probably just some freshman who applied late and couldn’t get a dorm. Yeah, that seems more plausible. He unlocked the door and opened the door. He found himself staring down at a head of pastel pink hair. What the… The boy in question looked up and smiled widely. Chanyeol’s heart stopped.

“Hi, I’m Byun Baekhyun, and I’m going to be your new roommate!”

Yup, definitely murderer.

Chanyeol was in complete shock. His new roommate wasn’t supposed to be cute and short and… wait was this kid even in college? He looked like he could be a junior in high school.

The boy, Baekhyun, cleared his throat. “Um hello?” He looked around frantically. “You are Chanyeol right?”

Chanyeol nodded his head, still unable to speak.

Baekhyun was frowning now. “And… you are looking for a roommate, right?”

Chanyeol nodded his head again, managing to get out a small “y-yes.”

“Great!” Baekhyun smiled widely again, causing Chanyeol to once again have a heart attack. He pushed past Chanyeol into the apartment. “Wow, this is a really nice place you have! If we split the price, it’s going to be really cheap right?”

Chanyeol forced himself out of his dumbstruck state. “Y-yeah, I've been living here since the beginning of term.  I’m a sophomore at Seoul University. And you are…?”

“Oh right, I’m Byun Baekhyun,”

You already said that thought Chanyeol.

“I don’t go to your university but I’m a junior. Looks like I’m hyung. You don’t have to call me that though.” Baekhyun grinned, winking.

Wait this shorty was older than him? But he was so cute, and that pink hair wasn’t helping his case either.

“Wait, if you don’t go to my university, how did you know I was looking for a roommate?” Chanyeol asked.

“My friend who goes to your university gave me this.” Baekhyun shoved a flyer in Chanyeol’s face. “He knew I was looking for an apartment and said you were a good guy.”

Chanyeol nodded, still flustered. He could not fall for this guy, roommate relationships are bad news. No matter how cute his smile was or how much he liked his hair, Chanyeol would have to stay away. Suddenly, he thought of something.

“There’s only one rule that I must inform you of.”

\(~U~)/

                Baekhyun stared at the giant piece of tape that now ran down the middle of the apartment. It occurred to him that the apartment was extremely symmetrical, and the neon yellow duct tape split the couch clean in half. The couch was against a counter, which acted as a wall between the “living room” and the kitchen/eating area. The tape ran over the couch between the oven and stove, straight down the round dining table. The only other things in the apartment were two closed doors on opposite sides of the tape. Chanyeol laid down the last of the tape and stepped back to admire his work.

                “Um, Chanyeol? Not to be rude or anything, but um, what the hell is the tape for?” Baekhyun asked warily, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

                “This, Byun Baekhyun, is and ingenious idea straight from the great mind of Park Chanyeol” Chanyeol grinned proudly. “You see, this side is mine,” he pointed to the side he was standing on, “and that side is yours,” he said as he pointed to the side Baekhyun was standing on. “You will stay on your side, and I will stay on my side. This line is never to be crossed.”

                Baekhyun stared at Chanyeol.  “And what exactly is this supposed to accomplish?”

                Chanyeol crossed his arms. “Well, now we will be sure that each of us is paying for exactly half of the apartment. Your room is just through that door there.”

                Baekhyun pouted. “But what if I wanted to be friends with you? How am I supposed to do that from over here?”

                Chanyeol gulped and didn’t meet Baekhyun’s gaze. “Well, it looks like you will just have to deal with it.” His eyes darted to the boy’s suitcases. “Well, I’ll let you get unpacked. I have class tomorrow, so I’ll be up pretty early. Don’t worry if you wake up and I’m not here. Goodnight!” Chanyeol scrambled to his room and shut the door behind him.

                Baekhyun stood in his spot for a moment watching the closed bedroom door, with an amused smile on his face. Cute.

\(~U~)/

                The next morning, Chanyeol woke to the smell of maple syrup and bacon. He stumbled out of his bedroom into the kitchen. At the stove, Baekhyun was frying bacon, his pink hair shaggy and beautifully messy.

                Oh my god Chanyeol, you must be dreaming. There’s no way this is real there’s no way this is real…

                “Hey Chanyeol.” Baekhyun smiled and held up a spatula in greeting. “You forgot that I’m in University too? We both have class.”

                “Uh, right,” Chanyeol shook his head with a small grin and made his way to the table. “So uh, I see you are still on your side, good.”

                Baekhyun frowned. “Yeah, your apartment is scarily symmetrical, like we both literally have half of everything. I don’t really like it though.”

                Chanyeol shrugged. “It’s better this way,” He said nonchalantly. That way you won’t  do anything that would potentially make me fall for your smiley eyes. Or your pouty lips. Or your pink hair. No sir, not happening.

                Baekhyun harrumphed and made his way to the table with a stack of pancakes and bacon. “Hey you know this means you owe me for the food right?”

                Chanyeol reached greedily for a pancake. “Yeah, yeah, I owe you, eat now talk later.”

                Baekhyun swiped his hand away. “Nooooo, you owe me now.”

                Chanyeol looked up at Baekhyun, eyes pleading. “The smell of pancakes is torture yo, what do you want?”

                Baekhyun grinned wickedly. “You have to… play a game with me. Every morning one of us will ask one question, and the other has to answer honestly. I want to get to know you because we literally just met and we’re living together. For all I know, you got a roommate just so you could commit some act of murder.”

                Chanyeol snorted. “For all I know, you’re a murderer who came to my apartment to get close to me just to back-stab me. Literally.”

                Baekhyun laughed. “Touche. Then its settled.” Baekhyun put three panakes on his plate and passed the rest to Chanyeol. “I’ll go first. If you had to name the next baby that was born on earth right now, what would you name it?”

                Chanyeol squinted his eyes. “Are you serious? That is your question? Wow I don’t think your IQ is high enough to be a murderer.”

                Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “C’mon Chanyeol, humor me!”

              Chanyeol decided he quite liked it when Baekhyun said his name. “Ok, Baekhyun, I would probably name it… Jimin.”

                Baekhyun frowned. “So boring… that could be a boy or a girl’s name.”

                Chanyeol laughed. “Yeah that’s the point. If you’re so not boring what would you name it?”

                Baekhyun swallowed a piece of bacon. “I would name it Baekyeol, to commemorate this moment. I mean we are eating breakfast together. And it was born. While Chanyeol and Baekhyun were eating breakfast together. Therefore Baekyeol.

                This boy is actually crazy. Chanyeol shook his head. “I’m afraid I cannot agree with that Baekhyun. If we were taking that into account, I would name him Chanbaek.

                Baekhyun smiled. He decided he quite liked it when Chanyeol said his name.

\(~U~)/

                Over the next couple weeks, Baekhyun learned whole lot about Chanyeol. He learned that Chanyeol is slightly allergic to apples but loves apple pie too much to care and that he fell off a swing as a kid and broke both his legs and now refuses to go near them. He learned that Chanyeol hates seafood except for shrimp which he loves with a passion. Chanyeol is afraid of spiders, had his first kiss when he was 14, and is in fact gay. Chanyeol loves peperoni pizza, hates soups, Chanyeol, Chanyeol, Chanyeol.

There were still a lot of things Baekhyun didn’t know about Chanyeol, but he did know that the giant was an adorable klutz with big ears who was quickly becoming a distraction to Baekhyun. He would think about Chanyeol all the time, from while the professor is giving a lecture to while Baekhyun waited at the bus stop. Chanyeol’s eyes, Chanyeol’s smile, Chanyeol’s lanky arms, it was consuming him to say the least. And it didn’t bother Baekhyun one bit.

                Chanyeol on the other hand, wasn’t doing so well. The more he was around Baekhyun, the more infatuated he became with the boy with the pink hair. Those mornings at breakfast were the sole time Baekhyun and Chanyeol had full conversations, because Chanyeol would avoided him like hell for the rest of the time. They periodically had dinner together, but Chanyeol would finish as fast as possible and retreat back to his room.

Every day he would learn something new about Baekhyun. He learned Baekhyun had one sister and grew up in the city. He learned that Baekhyun’s favorite author was Lewis Carroll and that he had about 10 of his poems memorized. Baekhyun dyed his hair pink at 12 am on New Year’s Day of that year and had no regrets. Baekhyun was bi but had never had a boyfriend. Baekhyun really liked people playing with his hair. Baekhyun really liked anything with potatoes in it. Baekhyun, Baekhyun, Baekhyun. It was really inevitable.  Chanyeol was slowly falling for Baekhyun. The only thing that was helping him was that Yellow tape. He had never touched Baekhyun, not once, and never planned to. Not that he never wanted to.

                On that particular morning, Baekhyun found out something that was particularly interesting.

                “You have a job? Where? Wait what? It’s been like two and a half months since I met you how could I have not known?” Baekhyun babbled, dumbfounded. 

                Chanyeol shrugged, “I never thought it was important. I still got home before you so there is  no way you could have guessed.”

                “Yeah, because you literally never talk to me except  in the mornings” Baekhyun mumbled under his breath, swirling his coffee in his cup.

                “What was that?” Chanyeol asked, oblivious.

                “Nothing,” Baekhyun grumbled. It wasn’t Chanyeol’s fault he was busy. It wasn’t like he was intentionally avoiding Baekhyun. “So where do you work?”

                “Oh, it’s nothing big. I work as a barista at a little coffee shop down the street.” Chanyeol said, watching Baekhyun carefully to gauge his reaction.

                Baekhyun’s eyes lit up. “Oh really? Maybe I’ll drop by after class one day!”

The line Chanyeol, the line

                “Um, are you sure? My shift will probably be over, you come back home pretty late.” Chanyeol said, forcing the words out of his mouth.

                Baekhyun laughed. “I don’t actually have class for that long. I stay for a couple hours in the university library to study. I’m on academic scholarship, so I have to keep my grades up really high.” Baekhyun smiled widely. “Maybe I could just study at your little coffee shop!”

                The line, the line, the line

                Chanyeol stared at the yellow line that split the table in half, which separated him from Baekhyun. It was just studying right?

                “Yeah, Baek, maybe you could.” Chanyeol said with a grin.

                \(~U~)/

                Chanyeol’s eyes kept darting up to the front door. His hands kept playing with the keys on the cash register. It wasn’t like he was waiting for anyone. He just wanted to be prepared when a certain someone walked in. You know. Just to be prepared.

                “Waiting for your boyfriend, Park?” his coworker Lay asked, smirking.

                Chanyeol whipped his head around. “W-what?” he spluttered, blinking rapidly. “Uh, no, what? I’m not waiting for anyone. I’m just being extra vigilant about the customers who walk through the door today. Or something. ”

                “Oh ok, so you wouldn’t mind if I took over the register for the rest of the shift.” Lay crossed his arms and leaned against the back counter.

                “Noooo,” Chanyeol hissed as he attempted to put his arms around the cash register, shielding it from Lay.

                “Ok, then tell me what hot piece of you’re waiting for.” Lay asked expectantly.

                Chanyeol cleared his throat. “Well, I’m not waiting for someone necessarily, but my roommate may or may not be coming here today. And don’t refer to him as a ‘hot piece of ’, its degrading.”

                Lay put his hands up in defense. “Hey, I mean am I wrong?”

               The door chimed and Chanyeol froze. Baekhyun was practically skipping, his back pack bouncing up and down. “Hey, Yeol!”

                Lay whistled under his breath.  “Damn,” he muttered elbowed Chanyeol in the waist and wiggled his eyebrows. “emphasis on hot piece of ,” he whispered to Chanyeol.

                Chanyeol glared at Lay and willed him to leave before turning back to Baekhyun. “Hello, welcome to our coffee shop what would you like to drink?”

                “Hmmm, that’s all I get? Hello welcome to our coffee shop?” Baekhyun teased, eyes glinting mischievously.

                The line, Chanyeol

                Chanyeol cleared his throat. “Well yes, you are a customer and I am working. What would you like to drink?”     

                Baekhyun pouted. “Well, you’re right, I won’t bother you. Can I have the strongest cup of coffee you have?”

                Chanyeol snorted. “Uh sure, if you can handle it. Would you like any cream or sugar with that?”

                “No thanks, I take my coffee black.” Baekhyun smiled a toothy grin. “Why do you think I’m so hyper all the time?”

                Chanyeol grinned and handed him the coffee. Baekhyun paid for the drink and proceeded to bounce over to an empty table next to the window.

                Over the next couple hours, customers came and went, but Chanyeol barely noticed. It felt like Baekhyun was the only person in the shop, or at least the only person that mattered. Eventually Lay took over the register, and Chanyeol busied himself with cleaning the coffee machine or shining the syrup pumps. The customers were drying out, and it was getting late. He would glance over to Baekhyun every so often, and note how Baekhyun scrunched his eyebrows when he was thinking really hard about something. Or how he would chew on the end of his pencil when he was reading something. Gross, but still adorable to Chanyeol in some weird way.

                Chanyeol’s shift ended at 7pm, the same time as it did every day. Grabbed his stuff and headed over to Baekhyun’s little table. There were three textbooks laid out on the table and random papers and pens scattered between them. Chanyeol flicked his pink head of hair lightly.

                “Hey,” Chanyeol said, “my shift just ended and I was heading out. Would you maybe want a ride? I have a car you know.”

                Baekhyun smiled sleepily. “No, that’s ok Yeol. I need to review this last chapter one more time anyways. You go ahead, I’ll just take the bus home.”

                “Oh, um, are you sure? I could wait for you,” Chanyeol said, not wanting to leave Baekhyun on his own.

                “Yeah, don’t worry about it. If I have my coffee and my phone, I will survive.” Baekhyun cracked a smile and then waved goodbye. He watched Chanyeol walk out the door and sighed. Get over it Baekhyun, he doesn’t like you.

                “So you and Chanyeol huh?”

                Baekhyun turned around to see who spoke. The only other person in the shop was the other employee behind the counter, who was currently counting coffee beans. Wow he must be really bored. He was tall, but not as tall as Chanyeol, and had a cute dimple.

                “Um, no there’s no me and Chanyeol. There’s just me. And then Chanyeol.” Baekhyun said, gathering his papers.

                Dimple boy chuckled. “Right. He’s a really good guy you know. A little clumsy and idiotic at times, but all around a good guy. I see why you like him.”

                Baekhyun immediately blushed. “W-what? I don’t., I don’t like- I don’t like anyone, ok!” He stuttered, shoving his textbooks into his backpack.

                “Yeah, right. It’s written all over your face. But don’t worry, I think you might have a chance.” Dimple boy winked and then went back to counting coffee beans.

                Baekhyun grabbed his backpack and walked out the door. Don’t think about it Baekhyun, even if you did have a chance, how would that guy know?

                Baekhyun turned to walk towards the bus stop when someone cleared their throat.

                “Hey brainiac, you ready?”

                Baekhyun whipped around, gawking. “Chanyeol? What the- why are you still here?”

                Chanyeol dug his hands into his pockets. He kept looking at the ground, like there was something particularly interesting about cement. “Well, I just, you know, wanted some fresh air. And if I’m already out here, why not wait for you? You know, we’re going to the same place. We carpool, save gas, less pollution, no more global warming; there are a lot of benefits to this you know”

                Baekhyun rolled his eyes and punched Chanyeol’s shoulder lightly. “Thanks,” he whispered, smiling.

                Chanyeol met his eyes for a moment, and then looked away again. “C’mon, my car is just over there. Let’s go home.”

\(~U~)/

hie

pt. 2 willl be up soon im almost done writing it idek man it is nearing the end of the year and finals and EOCs and AP exams are stressing me out but aaa but this is the source of my procrastination whatever yes pt.2 will be up sooooooonn anticipate yes hehe