Being friends with Baekhyun is surprisingly easy despite the fact that I’ve put him on a high pedestal for years by labeling him as my crush.

Days turn into weeks and weeks turned into a month, and not texting Baekhyun has become something irregular for me. What started with texting each other snarky comments along with asking whenever the other is free for tutoring or not has turned into a daily exchange of texts about nothing and everything all at once.

I learn that Baekhyun lives alone here in Seoul while the rest of his family resides in Bucheon, and he has an older brother who works for Hyundai as an accounting manager. His favorite colors are monotone shades, and he is a borderline videogame addict. He hates cucumbers, raw garlic, and the list goes on.

My grades have improved, but not significantly because I didn’t want to thin out my chances of being able to hang out with Baekhyun just yet. He might have softened a little bit at the prospect of being friends with me, but I can see that he wants to keep it lowkey because he ignores me completely when one of my other friends come over to my class to check up on me or pick me up for lunch.

We’ve bounced back between Saturdays and Fridays at his place for tutoring sessions, because Sundays are for “cracking open a cold one with the boys” and the rest of the school week is reserved for Somi, Baekhyun’s love of his life. I’ve filed that into the parts of my feelings I’d rather not get in touch with.

“You’ve been on that phone for an awful length of time, it’s actually annoying me,” Jaehyung says, and I shoot him a glare before locking my phone and sliding it into my jeans pocket. “And you think I care because?” I snort.

Jaehyung’s expression darkens for a split of a second and then breaks into a grin instead, confusing me more than I’d like to admit. “Because the brightness is ruining the dark aesthetic this club has going,” he reasons.

I roll my eyes at his stupid excuse. “Yeah, right. All clubs are dark, Jae, why can’t you just admit that you’re jealous that you’re not the one I’m texting all the time?” I joke, reaching for a shot of an alcohol mix set out on the table.

A beat of so-called silence, whatever silence may be in a club with music blaring from every inch of its’ walls, rushes over the both of us and I take a shot from the glass.

“And if I say I was?” my head spins, and I’m not sure if it’s from the surge of alcohol or the bomb that Jaehyung dropped. Sometimes, his jokes aren’t as funny as he’d like it to be.

“Then I’d say you’re being stupid because your contact is on my number one speed dial,” I answer safely, and stalk off to the dancefloor before he can say anything else.

***

The blaring sound of my phone’s stupid ringtone wakes me up from my late nap, and I blindly reach over to where my phone is and knock a couple off things off my nightstand.

“Hello?” I croak, squinting at the abnormally darkened sky greeting my line of view from my bed.

“...llo? Min…?” the voice from the other line sounds crackly and I stare at my phone screen for a couple of seconds to realize that it’s Baekhyun who is actually calling me, and I sit up straight immediately.

“Baekhyun? Is there something wrong?” I quickly ask, knowing that Baekhyun wouldn’t have called me if it doesn’t involve something critical. There is shuffling on the other line and I can hear the rain pouring down from where he is.

“Minhwa? Can you hear me?” he asks, voice muffled. “Yeah, I can, what’s wrong?”

“You said you lived in Cheongdam-dong, right?” he asks again. “Stop being so meandering and just get to the point, Baek,” I snap, not up for solving all the questions I know he’s going to ask.

“Okay,” he says slowly, “I’m downstairs in your apartment’s lobby using the free wifi it provides to call you right now, my phone is on one percent, so can you come to get me because I’m soaked in rainwater and it’s freezing, the security guard looks like he’s going to maul me any time soon, you can ask me the questions later?”

I blink in hopes of helping my fresh-out-of-sleep brain trying to keep up with the speed of Baekhyun’s sentence.

“Hang in there,”

***

Turns out it’s half past twelve in the morning and my nap had extended for way longer than I expected it to last.

Baekhyun is seated on my kitchen counter wrapped in towels and clutching a mug of hot tea, eyes wandering everywhere like a lost puppy as I shuffle through the wardrobe in my guest room where a few of Jaehyung’s clothes are kept.

“You can shower if you want to,” I offer, yelling all the way from the room I’m in. “It’s fine,” his voice sounds distant, and I silently let out a breath I don’t realize I am holding—the thought of Baekhyun showering in my apartment isn’t exactly what I’d like to be imagining for the next few days.

When I exit the room Baekhyun is already halfway across the living room staring at my high school graduation portrait hung on the wall, squinting at the diploma hung right next to it.

“.” he whispers to himself as he reads my diploma, and he almost jumps when he turns around to see me already standing behind him with a pair of sweater and sweatpants clutched in my hands. “You’re a valedictorian?” he asks instead of anything, grabbing the pile of clothing from my hand in a trance.

“Didn’t know you could read!” I reply with a sarcastic smile on my face.

“Now get your changing before you wet my whole living room shamelessly walking around like the country bum you are,” I finish, glaring at Baekhyun for the extra effect. I sneak a glance at the stupid diploma attached on my wall, wondering if I should just take it down for good.

Baekhyun mumbles a quick apology before scurrying off to the bathroom, and I have to pinch myself to not let myself get distracted by his cuteness and how much I want to pamper him in this state.

Baekhyun emerges a couple of minutes later looking completely adorable in the oversized sweaters and sweatpants, hair sticking up to all different directions probably from trying to dry it with towels I provided him. My heart internally explodes.

“I’ll put your wet clothes in the dryer, it probably won’t take long to dry. Anything else you need?” I say with fake nonchalance, grabbing Baekhyun’s soggy clothes off his hands.

“Actually, yes. Can I borrow your phone charger? I don’t have any of my friends’ phone number memorized by heart and—”

“It’s plugged somewhere in this living space, I think, you can start in the kitchen,” I cut him short, dumping all his clothes in the dryer before I return to the living room to help him find his charger.

“Found it! How—” A huge crack of deafening thunder cuts Baekhyun short and the lights go out along with it, causing me to freeze in my steps and blindly clutch onto anything closest to me to have an idea of where I am.

“Baekhyun? There are knives everywhere in that kitchen so you better keep your glued to wherever you are until I come get you!” I yell quickly, hoping he hasn’t already blindly grabbed onto anything nearest to him because I remember charging my phone earlier the day while cooking myself some instant noodles and the charging port is literally located next to a knife rack.

“!” Baekhyun groans in pain followed by the sound of toppling things, and I sprint blindly to where his voice resonated from, not stopping only until I can feel his body under my touch.

“Baekhyun? Is there anything wrong? What happened?” I croak, going a mile a minute. He doesn’t say anything and I start to feel different parts of his arm, trying to figure out where he’s hurt and what had actually happened.

Suddenly, his breathing becomes ragged and my heart leaps into my throat. Before I can say anything, though, Baekhyun bursts out laughing. I take my hand off his body like burned and thank that it’s actually pitch dark so the obvious blush on my face won’t be visible to anyone.

“What the , Byun? You think that’s funny?” I spat, stepping away from him angrily.

“Sorry,” he stops laughing immediately, sensing the real agitation in my voice. “It’s just that it’s funny how people always say you’re an emotionless ice queen and blah blah blah, when you’re out here sprinting in the dark for a stranger like me just because you thought I hurt myself,” he says, and I can basically hear the smile on his face.

“One of those people were you, so shut up,” I almost whisper, inching further from where Baekhyun is standing, opening the drawers of my kitchen counter one by one to look for the much-needed flashlight or candles to light up the room.

After a few seconds of silence filled with shuffling sounds of cupboards being opened and closed, I feel Baekhyun’s hand carding through my hair in the middle of me squatting to check the lowest cupboard on the kitchen counter, and it takes everything in me not to have a right here and now.

“What are you doing?” I say quickly and it probably came off as anger because Baekhyun quickly retracts his hand from my hair mumbling a quiet apology.

“I couldn’t see where you are so I had to touch you to make sure. Here,” he murmurs, probably squatting to be in the same eye-level with me because I can feel the slightest tips of his knees brushing against mine. “I found some candles, but there are no matches and no luck with flashlights.”

He hands me the candles and I accept them wordlessly, standing up getting ready to leave. Realizing that Baekhyun would probably bump all his way back into the living room, I gingerly grab onto the end of his sleeve paws and pull him along with me quietly. He