Chanyeol has known Baekhyun for a few years now and he knew the shorter boy as well as his pockets. They are together in the dorm, while they practice, during meals and even share the same room when sleeping, which lead Chanyeol to develop the ability to notice every single little change in Baekhyun’s behavior. And that’s exactly what was happening. He was 100% sure that the red-haired boy was doing his best to avoid him, and well, he wasn’t ok with that. How could him?

Everything started a few weeks ago. Chanyeol noticed how the other, instead of sitting beside him while watching tv, preferred to sit at the other side of the couch. He noticed how Baekhyun stopped jumping in his bed in order to wake him up, and instead only called him before going out of the room for breakfast. He noticed how he tried to avoid his gaze when they changed clothes in the changing room after practice. All this added to lots of other little things Baekhyun stopped doing or looked reluctant about.

What bothered Chanyeol the most was the fact that he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Baekhyun wasn’t the type to avoid saying what passed through his head, but this time, whenever Chanyeol tried to bring out the problem, the other boy would just say that it was nothing just before walking out of the room. That’s why he decided that it was time to clear things up, even if he had to lock the shorter boy in a room together with him.

Chanyeol was sitting in the living room, playing some videogames with Jongin and Minseok while waiting for Baekhyun to come out of their room, thing he was sure the other was going to do shortly since he knew how the little guy uses to get hungry around that hour in the afternoon. Less than five minutes later he heard the door of the room opening and some footsteps directed towards the kitchen, probably in order to get some candies. After that Baekhyun went towards the living room and not surprisingly he sat on the furthest seat from Chanyeol, who looked at him with a frown. How long did he intend to keep on avoiding him, that brat!

“Baekhyun, wanna play?” Chanyeol asked, offering him one of the controllers.

“No thanks. I’m ok.” the red-haired boy replied shortly, without even lifting his gaze from the screen of his cellphone, and causing Jonging and Minseok to look at him and then at Chanyeol, feeling the tense atmosphere that was building up between the two of them.

That was it. Chanyeol had enough of that childish behavior. He was feeling a mix of anger, because Baekhyun was acting like a brat, and of sadness, because oh well, not being able to talk to him like they used to wasn’t nice at all.

The brown-haired boy put his controller on the table and got up from the couch.

“Byun Baekhyun. We need to talk.” He said, looking in the other boy’s direction.

“There’s nothing we need to talk about.” the other replied, looking at him for a brief second before redirecting his gaze towards the screen of his phone.

“Oh I don’t think so!” Chanyeol said angrily, his patience reaching it’s limits.

Baekhyun looked at him again, rising his eyebrow without spilling a single word. It was definitely a “shut up and leave me alone” gaze, something that Chanyeol couldn’t tolerate in that situation.

“How long are you going to act like a school girl? Act your age and speak up if you have any kind of problem with me.” Chanyeol said harshly, having enough of the other’s behavior.

“Sorry? Are you comparing me to a school girl?” Baekhyun finally said after putting down his cellphone. Chanyeol finally got his attention, and decided to go on with that tone in order to stir up the other and make him talk.

“Correct. If you’re not ok with school girl, should I define you a brat? Now that I think about it that’s more accurate.” Chanyeol continued, giving Baekhyun a provocative grin, action that made Baekhyun get up from the couch as well.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Baekhyun asked angrily, visibly pissed off at the way Chanyeol was talking to him.

“Guys calm down!” Minseok said, looking worriedly at the two boys.

“Minseok hyung’s right!” this time was Jongin the one to speak up.

“I’d like to calm down, but you know, when you have to deal with an arrogant child it’s difficult not to get pissed off! Baekhyun, speak out before you get more on my nerves than you already have!” Chanyeol said glaring at the shorter boy.

Baekhyun was about to answer him but the words got stuck in his throat. He had enough of the brown-haired boy yelling at him and the impassive surface he tried to keep up started to crumble. He looked down unable to say anything back.

“Oh what’s wrong? You don’t have anything else to say all of a sudden? How ironic..” Chanyeol started to say but stopped the moment he noticed a drop falling down the shorter boy’s cheek. Was he.. crying?

“Ya Baekhyun, what’s wrong?” Chanyeol asked worriedly seeing the other sobbing. He walked toward the red-haired boy and placed a hand on his shoulder, hand that got shoved down after a second.

“Baekhyun why are you crying? What’s wrong with you?” Chanyeol asked again, more worried as the other’s sobs got louder.

“You’re an idiot Chanyeol!” Baekhyun shouted just before running out of the living room, leaving the other three boys with their mouth wide open, unable to understand what the hell was going on.

Baekhyun felt like the air in the house was getting more and more heavy and decided that he needed to get out. With the tears still falling from his eyes he grabbed the first coat he found (which happened to be Chanyeol’s) and walked out of the apartment as fast as he could.

From the living room the three guys heard the sound of the entrance door being closed with a slam.

“Chanyeol! Go after him!” Minseok said worriedly, while Jongin pushed him towards the entrance.

Chanyeol didn’t make them repeat themselves twice as he rushed towards the entrance and got out as well. Once he closed the door behind him he noticed the elevator’s screen showing the numbers of the floors decreasing, meaning that Baekhyun was in it. Since that was the only elevator in the building the only thing Chanyeol co