PART ONE
"I R E G R E T Y O U"
I : II

God dammit Baekhyun, get a grip! Don't repeat yesterday!

To be fair, when he met Chanyeol at Walmart, he wasn't expecting the nerd to be so straightforward and ask him out on a date. It wasn't his fault that he got a little flustered, but that was the point, right? To get experienced and absolutely perfect for the time where he would date Oh Sehun?

Chanyeol had asked him out on a date at 6 PM, and it was currently 5:50 PM.

Great, Baekhyun thought. My timing is amazing.

He checked over his appearance one more time and decided that it didn't matter if he didn't look perfect, because he was only going out with Chanyeol to get dating experience.

What other reason would there be?

He was a good-for-nothing nerd.

"Mom, I'm leaving now!" he called and he got no response which made him snort. Typical.

He grabbed his keys off of the tray and put his wallet in his pocket, walking through the hallway and casting one more glance at himself in the mirror. He paused just before putting on his shoes, making a last-second decision and rushing back into his room.

"Is the styled hair too much?" he questioned himself as he stared hard at the black locks in his vanity mirror.

After a full minute of contemplating, he gave up on any good sense, groaning as he ran a hand through the hair he had spent at least 10 minutes perfecting. He even changed completely out of his previous clothes, settling with a navy-blue sweater and black jeans.

He smacked on some lip balm, thinking about how difficult dating was, and made a pact with himself to kick Chanyeol in the balls if he didn't appreciate him.

Hopefully, this whole idea of dating experience would work. Otherwise, Baekhyun was ed.

~

"Did you wait for a long time?" Baekhyun asked as he sat down in the seat he thought was for him. When he looked up from his belongings and spotted a complete stranger, he furrowed his brows, wondering how Chanyeol changed from a 17-year-old to at least a 30-year-old.

"Byun!"

He turned and looked at the table on the opposite side of the café, spotting Chanyeol waving at him with a face that was obviously him trying to stifle his laughter.

Lesson number one: find your ing partner first.

Baekhyun scrambled from his spot and quickly made his way over, but not before he tripped over a foot that was sticking at least one meter away from where it was supposed to be.

The teacher's-pet moved faster than Baekhyun could have ever expected, standing up from his spot and grabbing Baekhyun's arm, pulling him into his chest. He stopped the smaller from the embarrassing demise that God seemingly wanted him to experience so badly.

Baekhyun looked up and there was no space for any romantic thoughts, because Chanyeol's glasses were crooked and he ended up looking that much funnier than usual, making the smaller laugh uncontrollably. He unconsciously leaned into Chanyeol when he laughed, unable to stop himself (Junmyeon hated that once he started laughing, he usually couldn't stop for a while).

When Baekhyun caught his composure enough to sit down, he cleared his throat, realizing that he had just been laughing for an entire two minutes.

Things were a little awkward now, and he didn't know what to say.

Lesson number two: don't laugh at your date the second you lock eyes.

"Do you want to get anything?" Chanyeol spoke up, and when Baekhyun had enough courage to look at him, he was glad to see that Chanyeol didn't look half as awkward as he did.

Christ, Baekhyun thought that Chanyeol would be the one embarrassed here, not himself... But that was a good thing, right? Baekhyun could use this to his advantage.

"I've never been here before so... Can you pick one for me, please?" Baekhyun requested and Chanyeol looked surprised that Baekhyun had never been at this café before. "My friends like partying more than they like doing anything else," he explained, not wanting to seem like the true hermit that he was.

Chanyeol nodded understandingly, "Must be difficult... being so popular."

"What? Me?" Baekhyun asked, feigning surprise even if he knew that he wasn't just a commoner.

"Yeah, of course. Everyone likes you."

"That's not true... I'm just... Normal." , being humble is hard.

Chanyeol laughed at that, shaking his head as he stood up, "I'll go order something for both of us, okay?"

Baekhyun nodded and waited patiently as Chanyeol left, picking up his phone to check what he looked like in his camera. 

He almost screamed in mortification when he noticed that he had forgotten to put on his eyeliner, and he quickly checked his bag if he had any—which, he didn't. 

Baekhyun began panicking as he wondered if Chanyeol thought he looked totally horrendous—

I need to calm down...

He calmed his thoughts as he contemplated whether or not he should ask someone in the café if he could borrow their stuff (the girl 2 tables away was bound to have some, because even from there Baekhyun could see that she had piled it on). 

It probably seemed as if he was overreacting, but to him, his eyeliner had the use similar to a mask. It covered up his imperfections and made him feel brave and above other people, and without it, he felt like he was exposing his deepest secrets to the world. 

It was at that moment that Baekhyun remembered that he wasn't supposed to take this date seriously. It was just with Chanyeol, resident geek and forever teacher's pet. 

He would never judge Baekhyun. 

With those thoughts, Baekhyun started to feel more at ease and he leaned back in his seat with a sigh. 

He really wasn't prepared for this whole dating thing.

He looked at his phone again and decided to text his friends, leaving out the part where he had completely forgotten to put on something that made him feel like himself. 

baekhyun: 
On a date with the geek~

jongay:
I hope you don't die of germs.

minsucks:
I'm expecting amazing results. Maybe your ego will go down a little.

Baekhyun snorted at Minseok's texts, but he found himself disagreeing with Jongdae's.

Chanyeol was honestly the opposite of what he really expected him to be. With all the rumours swirling around him, Baekhyun expected him to trip over his words and blush every single second (he hadn't even known if Chanyeol was gay or not).

It was a little unsettling that Chanyeol seemed... like the perfect boyfriend.

He helped Baekhyun find all of his groceries, and he was good company when he wasn't talking about his three pets. He had manners and his smile was actually kind of... nice, even with the braces and all.

But of course! Baekhyun would never actually consider seriously dating him. That was crazy.

Chanyeol came back with two cups of hot coffee, taking longer than normal. He placed one in front of Baekhyun with a small smile. Baekhyun took a sip of the coffee and his eyes widened, expecting something either overly sweet or extremely bitter.

He wasn't expecting the perfect mix of the two, and he was trying desperately to remember the name of the café, so that he could drink here more often.

"I actually work here, you know," Chanyeol suddenly spoke up and Baekhyun's eyebrows raised. "And I just made this coffee, which is why I was a little tardy."

Baekhyun wanted to laugh but tried to keep it in, taking another drink of his coffee a little too quickly and hissing, sticking his tongue out fruitlessly when he accidentally burnt himself. Though he couldn't find himself caring that much because who even uses "tardy" these days?

"This isn't iced tea, you know," Chanyeol pointed out and Baekhyun mentally rolled his eyes.

"So you have two jobs?" Baekhyun decided to change the subject and Chanyeol nodded, explaining that his family wasn't the best off.

Baekhyun nodded, and he couldn't help but judge.

Now that he knew Chanyeol didn't have a good background, there was no way that he could ever seriously date Chanyeol.

Other than the fact that he was nearly the opposite of his type (tall, handsome, nice voice, intelligent—okay maybe Chanyeol had that, but he definitely didn't know how to pick locks or escape street fights,) his parents would never approve of his relationship.

Not that he cared about his parent's opinions, but considering the fact that they had control over his credit card, he couldn't go against their word often.

Baekhyun failed to answer Chanyeol's question, not even realizing that the other had asked one in the midst of his thoughts. Things got quiet and the only sound was that of the people around them, chatting casually about their day. 

Lesson three: actually listen to your partner.

The smaller set his cup of coffee down, pursing his lips as he tried to find a topic that wasn't overly used.

They sat in—extremely uncomfortable—silence, the only sound coming from their table being Baekhyun's manicured finger tapping the glass of his cup. Chanyeol stared at him the entire time, and Baekhyun was starting to realize why the taller had no friends (he was also taking back his words of Chanyeol being the "perfect boyfriend," hah, what a joke).

"So—"

"Did—"

They both stopped when they cut each other off, waiting for the other person to start talking.

"You go first," Chanyeol gestured and Baekhyun shook his head.

"No, you. Mine was a stupid conversation starter anyway," the shorter stated and Chanyeol nodded.

Chanyeol downed his coffee in one go and Baekhyun was surprised that Chanyeol didn't choke nor burn himself. He suddenly wondered how much alcohol he could take but shook the thoughts away when Chanyeol set the coffee down, seemingly finished collecting his thoughts.

"Did you know that you look really cute without eyeliner?"

"W–What?" Baekhyun nearly yelled, glad that he hadn't been drinking coffee at that time. It slipped past his mind that him, Byun Baekhyun, had just stuttered, for he was still trying to wrap his mind around what Chanyeol had just said. "A–Are you flirting with me right now?"

Well yes, Captain Obvious. Way to go.

Chanyeol laughed and he shrugged, looking amused. "I don't know if you can call that flirting, I was just telling the truth."

"That is flirting!" Baekhyun exclaimed and he felt completely overwhelmed, because Chanyeol was the one laughing and Baekhyun was the one embarrassed, AKA the complete opposite of what Baekhyun wanted to happen. "That's not allowed."

"Why not? I can also say that you look—"

Baekhyun raised his arms in front of him and mimicked the stop signs, not wanting another mini heart attack that night. He nearly knocked his cup over but he narrowly missed it, stopping Chanyeol while simultaneously hiding his face.

It was clear.

If someone like Chanyeol, saw the effect his words had on Baekhyun... that would be a hard stab to his pride and reputation.

"I–I'm just going to go. My parents just texted me, and my house is burning down."

Baekhyun quickly gathered his stuff, and stood up, hearing Chanyeol chuckle.

First dates usually didn't last 20 minutes, but Baekhyun figured that he could make it up to Chanyeol one day—wait who said that he was even going on another date with him?

He completely dismissed the thoughts of possible future dates with the nerd, and with his back turned to Chanyeol, he said: "I'll see you on Monday!"

He rushed out of the café, completely oblivious to all the people staring. He didn't really have the heart to care (for once,) because he kept thinking about Chanyeol.

Dammit, curse people with dating experience. They knew how to make other people's hearts beat.

Maybe it might not have been only because Chanyeol had experience in dating...

Baekhyun shook his head, deciding that it was impossible that he was actually interested in Mr. Teacher's Pet.

He entered his car and thought back to the events that had just happened, his heartbeat increasing steadily. 

Baekhyun had been called all sorts of things, like pretty, handsome, hot, and other slightly vulgar words, but now that he thought about it, no one had ever called him cute before. 

He pressed on the pedal with a small smile on his face, looking forward to Monday.

Lesson number four: wear eyeliner less.