the magic of ice cream and cookies (and friendship, too) 

---

Ice cream can cure all pain. Chocolate, too. Chocolate ice cream? Now, there you have a masterpiece.

And yet, Baekhyun's cheeks are still wet and his normally adorable puppy eyes are glistening in the most heartbreaking way possible. Luhan and Baekhyun huddle up under blankets, binge watching episodes of the latest dramas where the character manages to overcome all difficulties, and meet the prince charming and fall in love, and then reach all their goals, and something in Baekhyun breaks a little bit because outside of the tv screen, the world is cruel and he will probably never get his own happy ending. 

As the episode comes to a close, Luhan turns towards Baekhyun, who had calmed down quite a bit, considering the state that he was originally in. "Are you okay? Do you need to talk about it?" he offers, gently. 

Baekhyun knows that Luhan feels unbearably guilty, so he puts on a brave face to reassure the doe-eyed boy. "I'm fine, Lu. You know my father. I'm... I'm used to it already." 

Luhan's gentle smile cracks a little bit, and he lunges forwards to bury his face into Baekhyun's shoulder. "I'm so sorry!" he wails, voice muffled by Baekhyun's shirt. "I didn't know that your father would be there-I just-I couldn't possibly go there alone, but I feel so selfish! I'm so sorry, I don't know how to tell you how sorry I really am, Baek-" Luhan cries, cut off by Baekhyun softly prying the now teary-eyed boy off him. 

"It's okay, Lu. I'm not mad at you, really. It's not even your fault." 

Luhan stares at him a moment, searching Baekhyun for any sign that he's lying and angry, but when he sees nothing but honesty, he leaps forwards again and pulls the Byun heir into a bone crushing hug. 

"Baek!" he wails. 

"Yea?" Baekhyun replies, laughing softly.

Luhan pulls himself off of the other boy and composes himself, rubbing his cheeks furiously with the back of his hand to erase any traces of tears. He coughs, once, twice, to get his voice to work again, and sits up straight, before announcing, "We need a game plan." 

Baekhyun nods. Moping won't do any good, anyways. He sits up straighter on the bed and stares determinedly into Luhan's eyes, "What's the plan, Lu?" 

A blank stare.

"Um..." Luhan trailed off. 

"Luhan!" Baekhyun cries, throwing himself back into the covers as his best friend laughs sheepishly. 

"I didn't get that far, Baek. You know I'm not that good at this stuff." From under the blankets, Baekhyun hears Luhan shift around a bit, before poking the figure curled into a ball under the blankets. "Wanna call Soo? I bet he definitely has ideas." 

"I'm sorry? What did you say?! You decided it was a good idea to bring Byun Baekhyun to a gala where you knew there would be a  ton of media and, especially, where his father could potentially show up?! Lu ing han! Are you stupid?!" the voice screams through the phone as the doe-eyed boy currently the brunt of Kyungsoo's anger cowers a little bit, holding the phone as far from him as possible. 

"Kyung-" he tries, but was cut off again by a barrage of colourful swear words.

Baekhyun laughs and gestures at Luhan to pass the phone to him. "Soo, Soo, calm down. It's me, Baekhyun."

There is a pause, before Kyungsoo asks," Baekhyun? Are you okay? Don't worry, I'll kill that idiot once I get back. I'm booking a flight to Seoul immediately." 

"I'm fine, Soo. When will you be back? Can you drop by my apartment tomorrow?"

"Yea, I think so. Make sure that stays there with you, okay?" 

"Yea, sure. That isn't going anywhere." Baekhyun assures, laughing silently as he sees Luhan frown at him.

"Okay, got it. You should get some sleep, Baek." 

"Alright. Safe flight, Soo." 

As Baekhyun hangs up, he sees Luhan curled up on the fluffy white sheets, struggling to stay awake. It had been a long day for both of them. 

"Do you want to sleep now?" he asks.  

"Mhm," Luhan replies groggily.

"Night, Lu." Baekhyun says, dragging himself up to close the lights. 

"Hn," Luhan replies. He's already drifting off the dreamland, and Baekhyun expects the same, but as he turns this way and that on the bed, and cannot seem to fall asleep. The memories repeat in his head over and over again. 

He's running out of time. 

---

Chanyeol collapses onto his bed. After overhearing that heartbreaking conversation between Baekhyun and the boy's father, he had been dragged back to the gala and forced to sit through nearly two more hours of tedious small talk. 

He was itching to ask around about the Byun heir, but he kept it together. For now, he did not need to know the rumours - and even more so, did not want to know them. 

That was Baekhyun's story, distorted in the mouths of selfish and jealous businessmen, and Chanyeol wanted to hear it from the actual person. (This desire Chanyeol did not immediately label as weird, but it most certainly was, for the Park heir had hardly ever shown interest in others, and most certainly had never needed to consider hearing stories outside of the gossips circling around.) 

"Ugh," he groans, rolling around on the excessively large bed. Oh, how he wished to be able to wake up next to someone every morning and fall asleep with someone in his arms. 

And, for some reason unknown to him, the name Byun Baekhyun arises. 

He groans again, banging his fists against the mattress. It was frustrating, knowing that the Byun boy needed he