pairing: OC x BaekChenLay
length: 5566 words

He wasn’t sure what to expect when he got to his locker, but it certainly wasn’t the boxes of chocolate that overflowed the relatively small space. He didn’t even know how so many packages could be crammed into the narrow storage unit that had managed to stay closed. Although it certainly must have been more difficult for those who came by later, since they also had to deal with the mass of boxes while adding in their own. Deciding that he’d deal with this year’s haul of chocolate later, he quickly grabbed his textbooks before slamming the metal locker door shut.

“Yo, Jongdae!”

He quickly turned to see his close friend and classmate, Oh Sehun, waving at him with his own collection of chocolate in his arms. “What’s up,” Jongdae greeted as the taller male walked over while precariously juggling the boxes.

“Didn’t get any chocolate this year?” Sehun teased as he noted the lack of sweets in Jongdae’s possession. “No girls want you as their Valentine?”

“Well—”

And before Jongdae could say anything further, his best friend came up to the two boys with a very harried expression on her pale face. “Dae, can I please borrow your notes for our multivariable calculus class? That doofus, Yifan, managed to accidentally misplace my notes after I lent them to him the other day. He said they disappeared after he brought them with him to basketball practice. Can you believe it? Why would he even bring my notes to his basketball practice?” she rambled in exasperation with her hands flying every which way. Jongdae took a small step back to dodge them, lest he accidentally get punched in the face. “Anyway, I need to see your notes and copy them. I don’t think Yifan will be able to find mine any time soon and we have our midterm next week.”

“Go ahead. Just make sure—NO, WAIT!” But Jongdae’s warning came too late.

Upon hearing him agree to lend her his notes, she immediately opened up his locker since she knew he kept his notes in the storage unit. But what she hadn’t accounted for was the dozens of boxes of chocolate suddenly raining down on her after she swung open the locker door. “Oops…”

“Wow, you got this much chocolate?” Sehun gaped incredulously at the numerous boxes littering the floor.

“Yeah, I guess.” Jongdae scratched the back of his head in embarrassment before leaning down to pick up some of the fallen boxes. “Sorry, I meant to warn you before you opened the door.”

“Oh, uh, it’s fine. I’ll, uh, see you in class later. I have to meet Yifan and see if he’s found my notes yet. But yeah, I’ll come by for yours later if he hasn’t. Okay, gotta go.” And then she left as swiftly as she came. Jongdae helplessly stared after her as she disappeared into the bustling crowd of chattering students that filled the hallway.

--

“She didn’t get you any chocolate, did she?” Sehun asked with a knowing look in his eyes after he listened to Jongdae sigh deeply for the umpteenth time.

The shorter boy was sifting through his stack of chocolates, briefly glancing at the notes that had been written to him. A handful of them were from friendship chocolates given to him by a few of his female classmates. Most of them accompanied confession chocolates and Sehun had been butting in to read aloud the sweet, sappy messages that were written on flowery, scented stationery.

Jongdae would roughly elbowed his friend in the side whenever the taller male began reading out another love confession, since he didn’t want any of his classmates to think he was belittling these girls’ feelings. But so far, the painful jabs had done nothing to deter Sehun from reciting the notes’ contents in a high-pitched, simpering voice. It was only after Jongdae had threatened to steal the taller male’s chocolates that Sehun immediately dropped the note he had been reading from to cover his mountain of prettily wrapped boxes with his long body.

“I haven’t seen her name written on any of these notes,” Jongdae answered as he anxiously scanned through another letter before placing it in the pile of love confessions and moving onto the next note. “You don’t think she forgot bring chocolate again this year, do you?”

“Probably,” Sehun responded with his mouth loudly chewing a caramel-filled chocolate.

“But I know I’ve been giving her hints about this for weeks now. How can she just forget after all the effort I’ve put in?!”

The taller boy swallowed another chocolate before replying with a shrug, “Dunno. Maybe she forgot because Yifan lost her notes? Knowing her, she’d forget her own birthday if it meant she’d have less to worry about so she could properly study for midterms.”

“She doesn’t even remember her birthday half the time anyway,” Jongdae groaned as he added several more notes to the ever-growing stack of love confessions that laid on his desk.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with you making the first move, right?” Sehun pointed out sensibly as he continued munching on more chocolates. “I don’t know why you keep waiting for her to do something when you don’t even know if she likes you or not in the first place.”

“That’s the problem!" Jongdae exclaimed anxiously. "I don’t know if she likes me, so if I confess to her and she rejects me, then our friendship could be over. I can't lose my best friend over this.”

Sehun sighed as he shook his head in exasperation. He didn’t know why Jongdae had to make this so difficult for himself. Not to mention… “If you do end up dating her, then you’re basically giving up hundreds of future Valentine’s chocolate.”

The shorter male abruptly stopped skimming through the letter that was currently in his hand to shoot Sehun a look filled with judgment. “Is that really all you care about? The amount of chocolate I’ll get? Not, you know, my happiness?”

“Chocolate makes you happy.”

“No, chocolate makes YOU happy,” Jongdae retorted as he eyed the other boy popping sweet after sweet into his cavernous mouth. He cringed inwardly when he thought of the cavities and toothaches Sehun was bound to develop if he kept eating so many chocolates. “Don’t group me with the likes of you.”

“Whatever. Your loss.” And in the middle of chewing a cherry-infused chocolate, Sehun suddenly laughed as a wonderful thought crossed his mind. With a smirk gracing his chiseled face, he added slyly, “What if she gave chocolate to Yifan?”

Jongdae visibly stiffened and silently sat still for several seconds before forcefully pushing his chair back. Swiftly looping his backpack around his shoulders, he left the classroom in a rush and began running down the hallways to find her, praying that she wasn’t giving Valentine’s chocolate to anyone else, much less Wu Yifan. Sehun could only gawk as he stared at the abandoned stacks of notes and chocolate left on Jongdae’s desk, before glancing around to make sure that no one was watching him and quickly snatching as many sweets as he could.

--

“Okay, you’re going to go up to him with the box and you’re not going to freak out like a little baby. All you have to do is hand him the box and then walk away like it’s nothing. Simple and easy. You can do it. He won’t think anything of it. He’s got billions of boxes already. This is just another box of chocolates to him,” she chanted to herself while anxiously pacing back and forth in front of one of the school’s vocal studios.

In her hands was a small parcel neatly wrapped in golden, shimmery paper with a white star gift bow decorating the top. A white envelope was securely taped to the bottom of the package, but now she wished she had placed it inside the box instead. The sharp edges of the envelope kept stabbing her hands as she tightly gripped the parcel. However, she hadn’t wanted the envelope to be the first thing he saw and wanted the note to be found later—maybe even never.

“Oh my god, why is this so difficult?!” She then slammed her head against the wall by the door before immediately yelping in pain and rubbing the sore spot on her forehead.

“…What are you doing?”

She slightly turned her head to see who had walked by to witness this embarrassing moment. After letting out a shallow breath of relief once she saw that it wasn’t Jongdae, she scrunched up her nose as she continued massaging the red egg-shaped spot on her forehead. “Hey Kyungsoo.”

He just nodded solemnly in response, staring owlishly at her bruised forehead. “Should I be worried that you’re trying to knock yourself out?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“Okay… If you say so…” The round-eyed boy didn’t look convinced by her obviously false statement, but didn’t press any further. “I guess I’ll leave you to do…whatever you were doing.”

“Wait, Kyungsoo, do you know where Yifan is?”

He had just been about to walk away, but immediately turned back at the mention of his best friend. “Oh, I was actually on my way to meet him. Do you need him?”

--

It felt like he had run around the entire school trying to look for her. She wasn’t in the library, the computer lab, or any empty classroom that she would usually take over for studying purposes. She wasn’t in the cafeteria, the auditorium, or the gym which were all empty now that classes had ended for the day. She wasn’t at the indoor pool, the tennis courts, or the outdoor basketball courts (he was particularly thankful for that though). Jongdae had no idea where his best friend could be and he was about to be driven insane by the stress.

After taking a short breather by the nurse’s office, which she wasn’t at either, Jongdae decided to head to the arts section of the school that contained the dance practice rooms, the art studios, and the vocal studios. She didn’t spend much time there, since her schedule filled to the brim with academics and athletics. This was the section of the school grounds where he spent most of his free time, singing his heart out as part of the school choir. As he rounded the corner, he caught sight of the familiar view of her backside. But as he walked closer, his pace drastically slowing down while his heart rate began skyrocketing, Jongdae noticed another boy talking to her.

And his mind abruptly went blank, because this boy wasn’t Yifan. What was Do Kyungsoo doing here? Since when did he have any business in the arts hall? Granted, the round-eyed boy did have a wonderful voice and many of the choir members had tried to convince him to join the club. But he was too busy managing the boys’ basketball team to add choir practice to his schedule. And if Kyungsoo was here, did that mean Yifan was close by?

Was Kyungsoo helping her give chocolates to Yifan, since the two boys were best friends? Or were the chocolates actually for Kyungsoo? This was too much for his brain to process.

Not wanting to continue standing there like a creeper, Jongdae cleared his throat and stepped further into the corridor while nervously wringing his hands behind his back. “Um, hey. Didn’t fancy seeing you two here.”

She almost tripped when she heard Jongdae speak in that musical voice of his from behind her. “Oh, Dae, what—what are you doing here? You don’t have choir practice today. That’s Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Today is Tuesday. What brings you here all of a sudden? I thought you’d be with Sehun, bringing all your chocolate home. Because today’s Valentine’s Day. So you got chocolate. A lot of it. Most of it fell on me earlier. Remember? Wow, that was embarrassing. Please tell me you actually forgot that happened. But yeah, why are you here?” As soon as she managed to hold her tongue, she felt like melting into the floor because even though she tended to ramble at length, this had been the worst yet of unfiltered word vomit. Not to mention, Kyungsoo was blankly standing to the side and had already witnessed her making a fool of herself earlier.

“Me? I just happened to walk by. I forgot something in the choir room,” Jongdae fibbed lamely while uneasily rocking on his heels.  

Sensing the tension in the air and not wanting to be surrounded by the awkwardness any longer, Kyungsoo quickly said, “Er, I’ve really got to meet Yifan now. I’ll remind him to look for your notes. See you guys in class tomorrow.” He nodded to the two nervous wrecks before continuing down the hallway and disappearing as he took a right turn.

“So what were you speaking to Kyungsoo about before I got here?”

“Nothing much. Just Yifan being forgetful and a pain to deal with,” she answered, feeling slightly less tense as annoyance towards the basketball player returned.

“Oh, that’s cool.” Jongdae’s eyes briefly darted to the small parcel that she was gripping tightly in her hands.

She noticed the fleeting movement and refocused her gaze on the box of chocolates before letting out an anxious laugh. “Uh, yeah, I guess this is yours…” she muttered as she held out the wrapped box of chocolates to Jongdae while avoiding making eye contact with him, feeling her cheeks flame up even though the temperature was considerably cool.

“Wait, are you serious?” He just stared wide-eyed at the glittery, golden gift that suddenly seemed to sparkle even more under the bright lights of the studio. “It’s not for Yifan or someone?”

“Yifan?” She turned to look at her best friend in confusion, caught off-guard by his unexpected response. “Why would I give this to Yifan? If anything, he should be giving me my notes back,” she finished with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.

A faint pink blush spread over Jongdae’s prominent cheeks and he coughed nervously while averting her gaze this time. “Um, I don’t know.”

“Well, uh, now that we’ve made it clear who these are for, do you want them?” Holding out this box in the air was making her antsy since Jongdae didn’t seem to be accepting it and, by extension, wasn’t accepting her feelings. Oh god, she was never going to live this down, especially if Sehun ever caught wind of this. He was going to for ages and then she’d have to find new people to sit with at lunch, because Jongdae was going to feel uncomfortable sitting with her and then she’d end up a loner since if she was honest with herself, her only real friends at school were those two but thanks to her—

And then her brain froze as she felt a pair of thin, silky lips on her burning right cheek and slim, smooth hands over her bony ones that were still clasped around the box. The sensation of a cool waterfall washed over her as those lips pressed firmly against her skin. And even though her brain had short-circuited, she still had enough wits about her to recognize the significantly curled-up ends of that mouth she had imprinted in her mind’s eye long ago.

A number of seconds passed before Jongdae finally pulled away and the color of his face was very close to that of a tomato. It took several more seconds for him to finally speak and when he did, the pitch of his voice had gone even higher than normal. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I just went for it and I don’t even know if you like me back. Please don’t think this is weird.”

The only response was the sound of her choking on air.

“Oh my god, I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Sehun,” Jongdae groaned as he turned away so that she couldn’t see the mortification written all over his face. “I am never taking advice from him ever again.”

“W-wait, you…you like me?” she finally managed to verbalize after getting over the initial shock.

“Well, yeah. I have for a long time now. I just didn’t know how to explain what I felt,” he responded in a small voice while slowly turning around to face her.

She looked so astonished as she stood frozen in place, trying to process this new information. It seemed impossible that Jongdae was confessing to her. The boy she had liked for years was actually revealing that he felt the same romantic pull for her that she felt for him.

“And well, I really want to date you.”

This had to be some kind of dream. So she pinched herself. And immediately regretted it when all she felt was pain in her left arm.

“So…what do you say?”

She lunged forward to lightly hit his chest. “You idiot. You should’ve said something long ago. I worried for nothing that you would reject me and I got so stressed—” He quickly kissed her again, this time on the lips, while grabbing her arms to stop her from hitting him and wrapping them around his body so that she was tightly hugging him instead. She relaxed in his secure embrace and once the sweet kiss ended, she looked into his eyes and said softly, “You’re serious, right?”

With a wide smile, Jongdae murmured as he held her close, “You bet. I've never been more serious in my life. I really, truly like you.”

♈♈♈

Her thin legs swung back and forth as she sat on one of the wicker chairs that were part of the quaint little café’s décor. As her fingers daintily brushed over the cushions on the wicker chair, she mindlessly hummed a ditty to herself. A laminated menu was placed in front of her, but she paid it no mind, having previously read it dozens of times in the past. Not to mention, the staff already knew what she would order, so there was no point in glancing over the menu.

“A pink lemonade that’s been sweetened to perfection and a cheese Danish from straight out of the oven,” a bright-eyed man declared as he set down the tray carrying her order with a flourish. He flashed her an equally bright grin before gathering the ignored menu into his arms.

“Thanks, Lu Han.”

“Anything for my favorite customer,” the waiter replied cheerfully while bowing theatrically. “Is he not here yet?”

She nodded while taking a sip of the cool drink. After gracefully wiping her pink lips, she said, “There’s usually a lot of traffic around this time, so he’ll probably be late.”

“Well, his order is being prepared right now, so he has some time before it’s ready. By the way, do you want me to get you anything else while you wait for him? Another pastry? Some sweet dessert? Or perhaps the company of a handsome, single man such as myself?” Lu Han offered with another dramatic, sweeping bow.

“Go back to work,” she answered with a giggle at his over-the-top antics while waving her hands to shoo him away. “Your boss is going to ban me from coming here if he thinks I’m distracting you.”

“But you’re the distraction that makes my life in this boring place worthwhile,” Lu Han answered with a flirtatious wink.

“Ahem.”

A man wearing an indigo dress shirt with the top two buttons undone and a freshly ironed pair of long black slacks was looking pointedly at the waiter, who looked quite childish in comparison while wearing his rumpled sky blue apron over his white T-shirt and faded jeans. “My bad. Sorry, Yixing,” Lu Han hastily apologized with a quick bow to the other man. “I’ll be at the counter if you need anything. Enjoy your date!”

Once the waiter had returned to his station, Yixing sat across from her and grabbed her left hand to plant a chaste kiss on the back of it. “I apologize for being tardy. The meeting ran much longer than I had anticipated it would. I hope you didn’t wait long.”

“Oh no, I haven’t,” she assured him with a beaming smile. “How did the project proposal go?”

“I’ll have to rework some of the logistics to fit a smaller budget, just in case the allotted funds aren’t issued to my team. But I don’t think it will pose too much of a problem, since the funding manager spoke to me the other day and said I would most likely be awarded the full amount I applied for last month,” Yixing relayed as he crossed his legs and rested his defined chin against the palm of his propped up right hand. His characteristic dimple showed itself as he smiled serenely at her, his eyes hungrily drinking in the image in front of him.

She was dressed in a light yellow sundress that flowed loosely around the majority of her body while being cinched at the waist by a beige leather belt to also showcase her petite frame. A simple golden necklace hung against her defined collarbones with a matching set of golden earrings dangling from her earlobes. Her bangs were brushed up in a curve to the side to frame her youthful face and the rest of her long, glistening hair was pulled back into a high ponytail.

His breath caught in his throat, because she looked so perfect, sitting there primly with that innocent yet elegant aura about her. It was a Valentine’s Day miracle that he was able to sit with her in her favorite café on yet another date. Yixing knew that she was quite sought after; Lu Han wasn’t the only one to hit on her in the months that they had been dating, although the waiter did it with more jesting intentions than other men usually did.

In fact, Yixing had been so mesmerized by her ethereal, simple beauty that he almost didn’t move his hand out of the way when Lu Han came by with his usual order of a mug of piping hot black coffee and a butter croissant. The waiter just snickered when he saw Yixing’s love-struck expression immediately transform back into the poker face that the man usually wore upon realizing that Lu Han was now in their presence. It was so obvious that Yixing was madly in love with her, but they were too blind to see it for themselves. Lu Han almost made another pass at her, just to try and get a rise out of Yixing, but decided against it when the other man flicked his gaze to the waiter and wordlessly conveyed that Lu Han would regret even stepping into this café today if he did.

So Lu Han left them to enjoy their date, lamenting his lonely single status while watching the two laugh and chat animatedly with each other before they decided to leave for a change of scenery. To say he was just a bit jealous of their happiness would be the understatement of the year.

--

As they strolled along the river’s bank with their hands tightly clasped together, she was the first to break the amicable silence. “Yixing, what are we?”

“Hm?”

“We’ve been dating for awhile now. And at the beginning, we both agreed that this would be a relatively laid-back arrangement. We didn’t want to jump in too soon or too fast, since we had both recently gone through break-ups and you wanted to make your career a priority. But,” she bit her lip nervously as she spoke in that light voice of hers that always captivated Yixing, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About us.”

He gently pulled her to a stop under a giant oak tree so that they would be shaded from the afternoon sun that still hung overhead. “And what is it about us that has you thinking so deeply?” Yixing kindly asked with his strong gaze fixed on her endearing thoughtful expression.

“We’re in that vague in-between space between casual dating and a serious relationship. Somewhere along the way, these dates and the time we spend together have become something much more than just a few fun get-togethers. Well, that’s how it feels to me,” she quickly added in order to not sound as if she were putting words in Yixing’s mouth and assuming how he felt, since he could have had completely different thoughts than she did. “I could be over-thinking this, but I don’t know… I just really enjoy spending time with you.”

“I do as well," he answered quietly, his hand lightly brushing against the edge of her soft face.

“Yixing, I…I think I’m in love with you.”

He hadn’t been expecting such a confession at all. Because it was true that they had been taking this slowly and he had never once imagined that she would fall for him so deeply. But then his heart began to beat faster, his ears began to burn bright red, and he felt his dimple deepening even more as an ecstatic grin spread across his face.

Yes, this simple confession was more than he could have ever expected. More than he could have ever dreamed of.

“I love you too. And I think it’s time we moved onto the next step of our relationship, because I would be honored to call you my girlfriend.” And before she could respond to his equally sudden confession, he swooped down to capture her pink lips in an engaging kiss that instantly stole her breath away.

♈♈♈

“And STRIKE! You’re out!”

“That’s baseball,” she deadpanned as she turned away from the empty lane to lightly punch his shoulder.

“Oi!” He shot her a glare as he gently rubbed his now sore shoulder.

She disregarded his pouting expression as she leaned down to retie her loose shoelaces. “Bowling and baseball are two completely different sports,” she continued in that same impassive voice as she tightly looped the strings in a perfect bow on her left shoe before moving onto the right one. “I swear, you’re even worse at this than I thought you’d be, Baek,” she commented with a sideways glance at the overhead electronic scoreboard that hung over the bowling lane. She had thrown either spares or strikes the entire time while he had only managed to collectively score thirty-eight measly points after six turns.

“Tch, all sports are the same,” Baekhyun muttered before walking to the ball rack to pick up an atrociously bright neon green bowling ball that matched the equally bright neon green bowling shoes he had chosen when they had arrived at the bowling alley earlier. “They’re just dumb, boring games. Video games are way more fun to play.”

“Don’t say that. It’s not the sport’s fault you’re doing so badly. At least try to hit more than five pins at a time,” she lightly admonished as she sank down on the nearby red leather couch, her elbows propping up her upper body while her perfectly manicured hands cupped her chin. “You’re not really posing much of a challenge. I could throw gutter balls for the rest of the game and still have a higher score than you.”

Although he had been in position to wind up and throw the bowling ball, upon hearing her jab at his poor skills, Baekhyun immediately turned around while wearing an indignant expression. “Just watch me beat you! You’ll be sorry you ever underestimated me!”

But all she did was yawn loudly in response. “Sure, whatever you say,” she said flippantly while motioning for him to hurry and throw the ball. When Baekhyun turned away from her, she flipped onto her back and leisurely closed her eyes as she listened to the rumble of the bowling ball on the sleek wooden lane. In her mind, she could perfectly picture the ball barreling down the bowling lane—Baekhyun didn’t seem to be able to correctly spin the ball, no matter how many times she had shown him how to that day—before veering to the side and dropping into the gutter like it usually did.

And just as she predicted, there was no sound of bowling pins being knocked down and Baekhyun’s aggravated whines filled the air instead. “I don’t want to play anymore,” he moaned as he skulked back to the couch and began poking her sleeveless arms.

“What happened to you beating me?” she asked with a raised eyebrow while swatting away his hands. “Go throw another one. Your turn isn’t over yet.”

“Can’t you throw it for me just once?” Baekhyun begged, his eyes growing larger as he cocked his head to the side in an attempt to sway her with his adorable charms. “Pretty please?”

“Nice try, buddy,” she answered with a laugh as she lightly pushed him towards the ball rack. “I’m not letting you give up so easily. Hurry up and finish your turn, so I can throw another strike.”

Baekhyun glowered again as he reluctantly stepped away from the couch to pick up another one of those stupid bowling balls from the ball rack. “You’re no fun. We’re supposed to be having fun today.”

“We are having fun.”

“We’re supposed to be having fun together,” he amended sulkily before haphazardly tossing the ball towards the perfect pyramid of bowling pins that stood at the other end of the lane. He managed to only knock down four pins this time and the pinsetter quickly replaced the remaining six bowling pins with a new set of ten. “I want to do something else.” 

“Like what? I thought we had already agreed that today would be our bowling date.”

She was about to pick herself up off of the couch, but then she suddenly found Baekhyun on top of her, trapping her in between his arms as he looked down at her while she laid on the couch. “But I want to do more,” he said all of a sudden, his voice dropping an octave and turning huskier as he leaned forward to speak directly in her ear. His breath ghosted over her skin, giving her slight tingles as she stared back at him with wide eyes. “It’s Valentine’s Day, so we’re going to be romantic and eat a candlelit dinner with some nice classical music in the background. Once we finish the wine and dessert, we’ll stand up and dance to the music. And then—”

“Baekhyun, those tacky neon green shoes are ruining the moment,” she couldn’t help but interrupt with the ends of her lips just barely turning up as she tried to hide her smile. “I’m throwing those out the moment you take them off. I can’t believe they’re available as rentals here. I’m going to have to talk to Junmyeon about his taste in shoes.”

“Oh my god.” He felt like bashing his head against a concrete wall. “Here I am, trying to set the mood, but then you start talking about ugly bowling shoes and the guy at the front desk. Completely uny and not romantic at all.” Baekhyun ran one hand through his dark brown hair in frustration, still hovering over her with his other hand keeping his slender body propped up.

She pinched his soft cheek while replying, “Hey, Junmyeon isn’t just ‘the guy at the front desk.’ He’s been working for my dad for years now. And I’m not going to let him continue spreading his terrible fashion in my bowling alley.”

“So all I need to do to get your attention is become a fashion terrorist?” Baekhyun asked with a sly grin as he leaned closer and lowered his voice again.

“And that was probably the most uny thing I’ve ever heard you say. And I’ve heard you say a lot of uny stuff to me as well,” she remarked, trying to stifle her giggles as she watched his expression instantly change from overly confident to childishly pouty.

“But I’m the one you love, so I can get away with saying stupid and uny stuff.”

“Right you are. And because you love me, we’re going to finish this bowling game before we head out to that romantic dinner you were proposing.” She finally grinned cheekily before lightly brushing her lips against his soft mouth. “How about it, Baek? I’ll even bowl a few for you, so we can leave earlier.”

He sighed in contentment as he nodded, feeling much lighter and happier after that kiss, short as it was. It was the small, rare moments of love like this that made him feel like the entire world was his oyster. Although she seemed emotionless and uncaring most of the time, Baekhyun knew that she truly cared for him deep down; it just was difficult for her to express her feelings at times, having been brought up in a strict chaebol household.

But the secret smiles and gentle caresses were indicative of how she truly felt. And Baekhyun cherished every single moment he had with her. Money wasn’t important to her, but love was and Baekhyun wanted to lavish her with as much love as he could. Because she deserved it as the precious queen of his world.

“Happy five years, love. Here’s to many more years of happiness with you.”

♈♈♈

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all spent the day with your loved ones, whether with your family members, friends, and/or significant other! Today also marks exactly one year since I saw EXO perform live at my first K-Pop concert! These boys have changed my life so much in such a short time and I can't believe it's been a year since I began stanning them. It feels like time is passing by so quickly, but I also feel like I've known them for my entire life, haha. And I'm feeling so incredibly blessed that I'll be seeing them again in April for my 21st birthday. Thank you, EXO, for making my Valentine's more memorable than it could have ever been last year. And thank you, EXO, for granting me a wish that I didn't dare to believe would ever come true by returning for a very special birthday. I love you so much. If anyone is planning to go to The EXO'rDIUM in LA, hit me up! I'd love to meet you and fangirl over these wonderful boys together!

And thank you all for sticking with me despite my terribly irregular update schedule. I'll be honest, it was really difficult for me to write in January. Jongdae being so depressed for those couple of weeks left me very uninspired and I was just really affected by his mood. So I'm really happy that he rested a lot during Lunar New Year's and that he feels a lot better now. Not to mention, him thanking the fans for helping him win No. 1 on Inkigayo for Nosedive made me feel so grateful that a person like him exists on this planet; he is too kind and humble. Baekhyun has also been such a gift with his recent Instagram lives. And his collab with Soyou was wonderful and deserves its all-kill status. He was the first SME artist to get an all-kill in both 2016 and 2017. As expected of our rising collab king. And every day, all I do is pray for Yixing to be resting properly, because everyone knows he's been working non-stop since forever. He's been doing all sorts of filming in China while simultaneously preparing his solo album. I honestly have no idea how he does it. Yixing is truly a god among men.

I'm trying to ease back into writing now and I'll try to be more regular with my updates. I know this particular update was very different from my usual ones, but I've missed writing the female perspective. If you're not a fan of female OCs, then rest assured that these stories won't be frequent. I just wanted to time the "50th" chapter with Valentine's Day and write something different. On the flip side, if you do like female OCs, then I'm more than willing to write in more of them in this collection. I can't wait until I reach the actual 50th story of this collection, but I'll save that little speech for then, haha. Once again, thank you again for reading! Subscribe, comment, and/or upvote if you're enjoying these fun little short stories! See you soon with the next update!