The music is incredibly loud, pumping through the speakers cracked and rough and pounding into Baekhyun’s skull oh-so-painfully that even that third shot of vodka did very, very little to help keep a migraine at bay. Every inch of the entire bar is packed with people, filling the air with the stale smell of sweat and too much heat brought on either by the sweltering summer right outside or the almost vulgar amount of couples grinding against one another to the sticky beat of hard rock and too many shots of alcohol in their system. From his position at the bar, Baekhyun had a prime view of the entire makeshift dance floor set up at the foot of the stage where a band was currently screeching out a painful rendition of some 70’s classic; all heavy basslines and pterodactyl-like screaming that he was sure Freddie Mercury would be rolling in his grave from sheer mortification. It didn’t help whatsoever that he was the only one who seemed to notice just how blatantly horrific the music was to listen to, seeing as everyone else was too busy dry-humping one another and hooking up in the dingy bathrooms to truly care.

He definitely regrets listening to his cousin, cursing Kyungsoo to the high heavens as he downed yet another shot before switching over to a lewdly overpriced bottle of beer to ensure he would maintain beautifully buzzed without actually getting faced. If past events were to be any indication at all, Baekhyun was pretty sure he’d need sobriety as a best friend in order to get both Kyungsoo and his boyfriend Sehun back to the dorms safe and sound later in the evening.

For the twelfth time, Baekhyun glanced down at his phone just as the lead singer all but shrieked out the last note of the song; his heart dropping at the sight of the two texts sitting at the top of the notifications list.

From: Jongin
Sorry, don’t think I’ll make it after all. Last minute assignment from professor Lee – don’t think I’ll be finishing this by tonight, I’m so screwed…
Sent 10:15PM

From: Jongdae
Heyyy Baek! Think I might need to bail, just asked out that cute guy Minseok and I think I might actually score tonight! 😅
Sent 10:20PM

“Well that’s great then,” Baekhyun muttered, groaning in frustration as he slugged back two more sips of beer, eyes tiredly scanning over the masses of people disappointedly in search of his cousin and deliberating whether or not it would be a move to just up and leave them, seeing as neither one could be spotted from his seat at the bar at all.

“What’s great?” At the sound of that all-too-familiar voice, Baekhyun feels his negativity rise even more, reaching a near boiling point within as he slowly turned towards the ever-so-smugly smirking Chanyeol now occupying the barstool beside his, nursing a glass of something dark and expensive-looking in his hands; elbow perched on the mahogany surface as he leaned in too close as usual. Baekhyun takes a second to breathe in and out in an effort to calm himself, eyes flickering up and down Chanyeol’s body and scoffing in disdain at the sight of all-black clothing, artfully ripped and paint-splattered in what he’d always heard him defend as “artistic statements” to go along with his equally as pretentious attitude and the overall air of overconfidence surrounding the business major’s aura.

He looked good, but Baekhyun would never admit that out loud.

“Leave me alone, Chanyeol,” he sighed in response, throwing his head back ever so slightly in frustration, “Don’t I have to deal with you enough in World Lit?”

“Aw, don’t be like that, Baek, you’ll hurt my feelings,” he replied, faux pout in place as he tilted his head sideways. Teasing, as always, oh-so-irritatingly pompous.

“You have no feelings,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, flicking Chanyeol’s hand away from where he’d settled for playing with the hair on his nape, gliding his finger over his skin. “And don’t touch me,” he warned, glaring at the still-smirking brunet now chuckling at his irked expression. “How many times do I have to tell you? Or are you too stupid and vain to actually get it through your thick head?”

“You know, you can’t stay mad at me forever, Baek,” he grinned, ignoring the barb and at his lips right after taking a sip from his drink. “I already apologized. Don’t you think it’s about time you forgave me already?”

“I’ll forgive you when pigs fly and Hell freezes over, how about that?” Baekhyun grit out, narrowing his eyes at him when Chanyeol only reached over to pinch his cheek playfully. “It’s hard to accept your apology when you keep touching me inappropriately.”

“That was hardly inappropriate, come on,” Chanyeol laughed, stopping immediately when the blond boy whirled back around with a deadly glare, raising his hands up in surrender when Baekhyun gestured to hit him. “Okay, okay, fine,” he shrugged, turning back to the stage and watching the 70s cover band dismantle their set lazily, downing the rest of his drink. He’s smirking again, and Baekhyun tries to ignore the small, fluttery feeling settling at the bottom of his stomach.

Easy enough to do when Chanyeol spoke up again. “Means a lot that you came out to support my band, though.”

“I-I’m not here for you!” Quick. Defensive. Baekhyun blushed, avoiding the gaze he now felt on the side of his face from such a fast reply, cursing himself for that tiny, little stutter. “I didn’t even know you were in a band.”

“You know, this whole hard-to-get act will get tiring soon enough, Baek,” Chanyeol pointed out, brows rising in challenge as he set his glass down, slowly standing up. There’s something twinkling in his eyes, something unspoken and intense that Baekhyun has to turn away just as quickly as he’d looked up at him, lest he allow that warmth growing inside pulse wider and wider.

Even so, he could practically feel his self-satisfied, teasing little smile. “Just know I’ll be waiting,” he said, right before Baekhyun’s left alone; beer gone warm and disgusting.

He tells herself that jittery feeling is just irritation.

It doesn’t really work.

♦

The first time Baekhyun met Chanyeol was also the first time Baekhyun ever believed he could truly hate somebody.

It had been freshman year, a mere week after classes had begun at SNU. Baekhyun, wide-eyed and buzzing with excitement at the prospect of finally starting his journalism career, had been innocently walking through the large corridor of the equally large campus, laptop in hand and more than a little bit lost, chewing on his bottom lip as he climbed up the stairs in order to get to class.

Debate had never particularly been his strong suit, but that didn’t mean that Baekhyun was particularly horrible at it either. After all, smart, eloquent, and persistent as he was, Baekhyun was well and able in arguing his perspective, all while keeping a relatively clear head when hearing out others’ opinions. Still, debate wasn’t necessarily his favorite subject – if anything, he had been forced to take it as an elective, since the only other opening was to do with some form of science (and he’d rather die than have an unnecessary complication drop his pristine GPA for no good reason).

Seeing as it had only been the second session, it wasn’t an entirely foreign concept to see more students trickling into the room in comparison to Monday’s class, and Baekhyun settled in quickly, choosing the seat he’d taken last time near the window and setting up his laptop while the rest of the class arrived. Unlike the first lecture, the seat beside his was occupied this time, and from the quick once-over he made to the boy lazily sprawled out on the chair beside his, Baekhyun could already feel himself blush at the sight of dark jeans and a tight v-neck that perfectly accentuated lean muscle, all leading up to a handsome face and tousled chocolate locks.

Embarrassingly though, it seemed that his cursory glance had not been as conspicuous as he’d hoped. The brunet Greek god beside him seemed to notice him looking, chuckling darkly to himself in such a douchebaggy, presumptuous way that mortification quickly built up inside Baekhyun.

But still, he was nothing if not a person who believed in giving people the benefit of the doubt, so he chalked it up to nothing.

Wrong move.

Barely even twenty minutes into that fateful class, Baekhyun was left with an almost inhumanly strong feeling of anger bubbling up inside him; the feeling so alien it left him unsettled that it took everything he had not to barrel his way over to the opposite side of the long desk they shared just to punch that stupidly smug smirk off Park Chanyeol’s face.

His snide remark echoed in his ears, over and over again.

“I don’t think you can really ever understand, sweetie. With a face as pretty as that, you’ve probably never had to struggle getting your way…”

♦

“Hey, Baekhyun do you maybe—” Kyungsoo’s voice is incredibly chipper and incredibly tipsy when he finally makes a reappearance; the wide drunken grin slipping from his face once he sees the ugly frown marring his cousin’s face as Baekhyun tossed back another hefty chug from his beer bottle. “Wow, okay, what happened to you?”

“Chanyeol’s here,” Baekhyun spat out, glaring at nothing in particular. Kyungsoo sighed, sliding into the barstool which had been previously occupied by aforementioned Chanyeol and momentarily turning away to order two more shots from the bartender nearby before turning back to his cousin and squeezing his shoulder gently in comfort.

“What did you two fight about this time?” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, giving his cousin a meaningful brow raise.

“He’s just such an !” Baekhyun immediately whined, throwing his arms up as he turned to his cousin, frowning in vexation to compliment the inevitable rant about Chanyeol. (Kyungsoo tossed back both shots, already knowing where this was headed.) “He’s so arrogant and pompous and proud! Just because he’s handsome—”

“—Oh, he’s handsome now, huh?” Kyungsoo snidely interrupted with a snort, quickly raising his hands up in defense when Baekhyun threw him a dirty look.

“—And he’s so, so, so infuriating! He keeps touching me and flirting with me and pretending as if freshman year never happened!” Baekhyun grumbled, “Well, I’m not stupid, I’m not just going to keel over and bow down to Almighty Prince Chanyeol like every other girl he so much as pays attention to! I’m not that easy!”

“In his defense, he did apologize for being an , Baek,” Kyungsoo pointed out, smiling a little now, “You could cut him a little slack already. I mean, obviously he can be a douche, but it’s pretty clear he likes you—”

“No. No, no, no,” Baekhyun immediately cut him off, eyes bulging wide and hands wildly gesturing in disapproval. “No way am I forgiving that bull-headed, pig-headed, disgustingly cheeky ! And there is no way I am falling for that stupidly cheesy, super-suave, -dropping, killer-smirk, oh-look-at-me-I’m-so-handsome-and-tall, twinkly-eyes-and-velvety-voiced, trick!”

“You know for someone who claims to hate him, you do spend an awful lot of time offhandedly calling him handsome, Baek,” Kyungsoo snickered, shaking his head in amusement just as his boyfriend emerged from the throng of people on the dancefloor.

“Kyungsoo, there you are, come on, they’re playing our song!” Sehun called out, tugging on the sleeve of Kyungsoo’s jacket and effectively pulling the redhead out of his seat.

With “You should really open your eyes, dear cousin…”, Baekhyun is left once again with denial sitting on his lips.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he muttered, downing the rest of his drink.

Okay, so it’s not like Baekhyun didn’t know this silly tiff he had going on with Chanyeol was… well, silly. But still, he was too far in now to really back down; the urge to just be angry every time he so much as heard his name had become little more than second nature to him by now. Four shared electives later (out of pure dumb misfortune, in Baekhyun’s opinion), he still felt the compelling need to snap at Chanyeol at every chance encounter, simply “ducking his head under the sand” (according to his roommate Junmyeon) and flat-out refusing to make amends despite the two years that had already passed in university.

Nowadays, no one even batted an eye in their direction whenever Baekhyun and Chanyeol began one of their little arguments; everyone already used to the sight of the “weird UST-fueled mating ritual” as Jongdae had jokingly put it, that one time they had been having lunch at the quad and Chanyeol had passed by, earning him a cheeto in the face courtesy of Baekhyun who had been furiously trying to pretend that the cheesy wink Chanyeol had left him with played absolutely no role with the flush on his cheeks (he only succeeded out of sheer stubbornness).

Ordering another beer, Baekhyun sighed tiredly once more, leaning his entire weight onto the bar top as he people-watched the dance floor, smiling softly at the sight of Kyungsoo and Sehun laughing together as they danced, oblivious to the world around them and lost in their own little love bubble. Baekhyun envied them, a little. Aside from that time in sophomore year he’d gone on a few dates with Yixing while he was visiting from Beijing, he’d never really explored the dating scene, and although being single wasn’t necessarily a horrible thing, it also meant that sometimes he felt a little… well, lonely. Even lonely enough to consider—

“No, no, that’s impossible,” Baekhyun muttered, shaking the disturbing thoughts that had began taking form in his mind with a sip of beer, letting the foamy draft sit on his tongue and slide down his throat to distract him from his own foolish thoughts, saying, “You don’t like him, Byun Baekhyun, you don’t…”

On stage, a new band had already begun setting up for the next set and Baekhyun watched as the drummer played a few beats in practice, smirking down at the crowd who were now cheering as the rest of the members climbed up. For a moment, Baekhyun felt his stomach drop at the sight of Chanyeol confidently striding forward, guitar slung around his shoulder and smirk in place as he stood at the very front. What.

“Hey everyone, thanks for coming out!” Chanyeol spoke into the mic, brandishing that suave, too-many-teeth grin and winking, growing even more egotistical in his stance when he’s replied to with a loud cacophony of delighted screaming from probably the entire population of girls within the establishment. Baekhyun rolled his eyes derisively.

But he couldn’t look away. “So I know we usually start our set with ‘Monster’, but tonight we’re mixing things up…”

Suddenly, as if he could feel him looking at him, Chanyeol’s gaze lifted towards him and Baekhyun felt his stomach churn when he saw the same indecipherably intense look in his eyes staring straight at him and making him feel warmer than warm. “So I wrote this song about two years ago,” he said then, not once breaking eye contact. “And the inspiration for it is right here in this room tonight. He likes to say he hates me, and it’s pretty justified, but I can’t really say the feeling is mutual. In fact, I’m kind of a little in love with him. This one’s called ‘Only Angel’, and it’s for you, Baekhyun.”

She’s an angel
Only angel
She’s an angel
My only angel

I must admit I thought I’d like to make you mine
As I went about my business through the warning signs
End up meeting in the hallway every single time
And there’s nothing we can do about it...

short and cheesy lol i'm sorry!
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