Chanyeol glimpsed the analog clock hanging on the white wall letting out a tired sigh out of his lips. It was midnight and he spent the last half of hour absent of the game, too busy overthinking he didn’t want to overthink, searching answers he wasn’t sure he wanted to find.

The loud laughter and the continues argues seemed to die down until he couldn’t hear anything anymore, other thoughts filling his mind such as how much longer he had to wait until he could lock his stare with Baekhyun’s or why the did he care about that at all.

At some point, he became anything but an observer, he didn’t took part in the discussions about which the right answer could be nor really cared if his team was winning or losing even though he was really competitive. For some reason, he found much more interesting the way the oldest laughed, the way his eyes shouted close when he did so, the way he smiled to him every now and then, cheeks flushing in bright red when he realised Chanyeol was looking at him back.

He couldn’t deny the overwhelming fact that his friend was, indeed, beautiful. Also handsome and cute at the same time, but those words weren’t enough to describe him. He’d always thought that way, since they were kids, but now that he let himself really appreciate him, he realised his friend was too pretty for his own good. He liked the way his bangs covered his eyes partially and how his eyes sparkled when he laughed. He liked his smile, but, regardless, he wanted his smile for himself, and only for him.

He felt an iced cube of water falling over his shoulders when Sehun took him out of his thoughts.

“Snap out of it, we’ve finished” and every weird feeling about Baekhyun smiling to someone else disappeared from his stomach. “Your team won” he said with an upset frown twisting his sharp features. “But it wasn’t thank to you I guess” Sehun added with a knowing smile that curved his lips and made Chanyeol nervous again.

“Wha-?”

“Time to move on to something different” The youngest announced loudly so everyone in the room could hear him clear water “Who fancies twister? Because we are so playing twister right now, I don’t even care about your opinion” The tone of his voice was somehow shady and made every fibre of Chanyeol’s body scream in fear. He better run while he could, but it was too late, he knew he could not run away from Sehun when he had that look on his face.

“I’m so ed up” Chanyeol mumbled under his breath, thinking no one would heard him, but his beloved friend, Sehun, proved him wrong with a loud and genuine laugh that filled the air making the taller shiver.

Chanyeol didn’t know how right he was until he found himself standing in just one foot and his left hand, balancing precariously over the red and yellow circles colouring the white plastic while trying his best to not fall over Yixing’s leg, which was between his, nor over Baekhyun’s face, just a foot away from his.

“” He mumbled, making a superhuman effort to not fall, not really caring about winning the game but about his integrity.

He heard Baekhyun’s laughter and looked up, meeting his sweet brown eyes and, , he didn’t remember they were that close.

That was awkward as and he just wanted to disappear, or even better, die.

“You look like a tomato, it’s funny” his friend said in a cute voice, making his cheeks burn.

“This is the most exercise I’ve ever done in my whole life, of course I do look like a tomato, I’m exhausted!” he lied breaking the eye contact, suddenly overwhelmed why their closeness, his dark glare, his skin shining under the artificial light of the lounge, his tongue moistening his lips in that exact moment, and everything started to spin around.

What the was happening to him?

“Chanyeol-ah!” Sehun cried out catching his attention “right foot! Blue!”

“WHAT” Chanyeol yelled breathless “How am I supposed to do that without killing anybody?” Sehun just shrugged at Chanyeol’s exasperation and smiled to him almost angelically.

“Just do it” he sentenced with a mischievous smile that gave Chanyeol goosebumps. And when he managed to do so, he was even closer to Baekhyun who pretended to not realize, staring at the ground with flaming red ears, obviously flustered at the invasion of his personal space. Chanyeol tried to imitate him, but it was too obvious, his heart hammering so loud inside his chest he thought Baekhyun would heart it, his mind saturated with thousands of ways to make that situation less awkward but none of them seemed viable.

“”.

It wasn’t until he fell next to the shorter one, almost dragging him down with him that he realised. Sehun wasn’t using the roulette anymore, which meant that everything wasn’t anything but a ruse of his. How surprising.

Sehun was dead man, Chanyeol could swore.

“It’s been nice, I’ve had a lot of fun tonight” pink lips, pink cheeks, messy hair, tired eyes.

“Yeah, me too” nervous laughter, flaming ears, racing heart, confusing thoughts.

What Chanyeol founded when he looked down was Baekhyun, his Baekhyun, older than him, much smaller, and, somehow, as vulnerable as ever. He gulped, nervous, staring into his best friend’s eyes, convincing himself he nervousness was caused by the fact they shorted things out and are finally back to friends. Because that was obviously the reason why he was so nervous.

They stood there, in a brief awkward silence, just staring at each other. The other were already asleep in their respective beedrooms, everything was dead quiet, their voices weren’t anything but a hushed whisper that could be mistaken by the wind’s rustle and they glances locked for a couple of seconds before splitting out, flustered.

“Good night, Chanyeol” those words soaked through Chanyeol’s chest, making him somehow uneasy, somehow scared.

He tried to gulp, but a lump in his throat got in the way.

This isn’t a goodbye, isn’t it?

Tomorrow everything will stay like this, will it?

But burning fear filled his veins as he watched his friend’s back facing him. He wanted to reach out for him, he wanted him to stay by his side, like when they were kids, and innocent. He wanted to turn back time, he wanted to go back to those cold rainy nights, when he shared fears and dreams with his little tiny midget, his head on the lap of the elder, his tears disappearing thanks to the reassuring voice of his best friend.

That was all he wanted, but Chanyeol realised he’s changed too much to go back now.

A prayer of “stay with me tonight” died in his lips, hand halfway between his suddenly weak legs and his friend’s sleeve.

It was too late to back up now.

The door closed in front of him and silence was loud in his ears, tears of frustration threatening to stifle him.

A muttered “good night” left his numb lips in a whispered cry and his body felt heavy when his head touched his pillow. He was so tired, he felt so miserable, but he didn’t know why.

It's been 84 years but I'm back??? I really wanna finish this so I'll try my best to give y'all the ending you deserve ^^ I apologise for the long wait lol