Of Summer Nights and Cicadas
Description
It was a hot summer night, and Baekhyun had a little too much to drink. He also had a little something to confess to the one who owns his smile.
Foreword
After years of lurking in here and writing in my Tumblr blogs @runajoorun and @songofsehun I've decided to start shifting my stories over to AFF as well. I think it's time I also join in the community I've been a part of for so many years!
Without further ado, here's a Baekhyun story I wrote a while ago for my fellow AFF/Tumblr writer and best friend, SJsuperholic. It's a little cheesy.
"I'm not helpless!"
"Yes, you are."
"Am not!"
"Baekhyun, I'm not playing this game ag—Where is your shirt?!"
Summer was just around the corner, and thus summer meant vacations were looming near, the cicadas were preparing themselves to sing and typhoon season was approaching.
Summer also somehow meant that Baekhyun felt like drinking heavier than usual because it created a 'reverse temperature effect' that would cool him down. A phenomenon that didn't seem to be as scientific as he promised it was—judging from the now shirtless, sweaty drunk draped over your shoulders to support himself.
"Hey, heyyyy," Baekhyun slurred as his head lolled around your shoulder. You grunted in response. "You should smile more." he drunkenly grinned up at you, glazed eyes and characteristic red flush taking hold of his handsome features.
You rolled your eyes at your inebriated friend, regretting your choice of staying sober. "It's too late for your shenanigans, Baek," you grumbled. You knew tomorrow you were to wake up to a deeply cramped shoulder. "And you should be less of a pest." you muttered as you slapped his hand away from entering the inside of your shirt.
A merry Baekhyun also meant that somewhere, deep inside his brain the usually locked room of inappropriate touching was unlocked and out went the stage five clinger residing inside of it.
"No, really, you should smile more," he quietly murmured. You rolled your eyes as you hoisted his arm at a more comfortable position, your eyes not meeting his face. "Your rare smiles are really beautiful." You quickly glanced at him, meeting a pair of sincere eyes and a soft smile that made a vein in your heart close in a painful clench.
"Do you remember last year when I scraped my knee, and you called me a 'stupid child' for not looking where I was walking?" his voice lilted in the humid weather, the melodic cadence violently clashing against the rowdy sound of the cicadas inhabiting the trees lining the street. "But you still knelt down and took care of it, and when you got back up again you gave me the most wonderful smile I've ever seen in my life." You kept your eyes glued to the pavement. "Maybe you didn't even realize you smiled at me, or how much impact it left on me. But ever since that day, I vowed to myself I would do anything to see that smile again." his fingers toyed with your braid, and you noticed how your hands were getting clammy and breathing was more of a conscious action.
"Baekhyun, you're drunk." you sternly snapped, or at least that's how you hoped it had come out.
"This is the truth." his voice sounded more grounded than yours, yet smoky and far away—like a soundproof veil was placed between you two.
You sighed, trying not to have your emotions get the best of you. He's just talking drunk.
Baekhyun's sunny predisposition meant many things; it meant his radiant positivism always held you back from falling deeper into your naturally gloomy self, his cheeky jokes bringing out a flush you felt was unnatural in your colorless cheeks—it meant that as each day went by it was harder to not feel something yours abandon you and etch onto him, like ink penetrating the empty canvas of flawless skin. His flawless skin.
You decided to take the distant route. "If you didn't incessantly smile at everything, maybe you wouldn't be so obsessed with how often other people smile," something of a suppressed choke laced your speech.
Baekhyun abruptly stopped in his tracks, his slumped form rapidly gaining composure from his hold on you and setting notable space between you two, the unexpectedly sober reaction making you shift your eyes to his tense stance.
"Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe you're the reason I smile?" he chuckled lifelessly, eyes darkly cast to the floor as his face contorted into a picture of desolation that matched too well the crippling cold you felt at his words.
The cicadas stopped singing.
"That maybe everything is not okay like it looks like, that maybe I crack jokes and purposefully trip on my own two feet just to make you smile, so that maybe, just maybe one thing seems to be okay." his voice wavered and cracked after every shaky breath intake, caramel locks covering his eyes fixated upon the uneven cracks of the pavement. He thought they looked so ironic.
He was tearing up.
You stood still, gaze flickering to the pavement, to the signs adorning the dormant street's closed locales, to the misty haze permeating the humid air. To Baekhyun's hunched form, his jaw locked in anguish, his fists tight in resentment.
"You're cold, you know." he mumbled. "I know our personalities are polar opposites, but you still smile at Jongin's bad jokes, you smile at his dogs despite disliking them and, hell, you smile at Sehun!" he heaved a heavy, shaky sigh and you felt like your heart might have left you together with his breath.
"But yet, all I get is you rolling your eyes at me or a slap to my arm whenever I try to cheer you up, and it frustrates me because I don't know what to do anymore to make you not see me as a nuisance. You rarely smile at me." Baekhyun for the first time shifted his eyesight to meet your own paralyzed ones. "That's why I cherish your smile so much." he shakily chuckled.
"You say I'm helpless, and I think you may be right." a tear ran down his cheek, down to his forced smile.
You felt a tear open in your heart.
"You're stupid." your voice was hoarse.
Baekhyun gave you a slight nod, his eyes back at staring the cracks in the pavement.
"You're really, really stupid, Byun Baekhyun," your choke broke through the silence that permeated the dark street, further tainted by the heavy step back that Baekhyun took.
"Why are you putting the blame on me when you're the one who's blind," you stared at him through frustrated eyes, and for a moment you wish you had never met him. "Why are you talking like you're the victim here, the only one who's ever been wronged," your voice had escalated to an almost broken cry, the feeling of a thick fog clouding your vision creeping up on you, blocking your vision of Baekhyun.
"I don't smile at you because I don't know what to say to you, Baekhyun! I started to harbor feelings for you so long ago, I didn't know what to do with them. I didn't want them! I didn't want you!" Baekhyun flinched at your yelling, and you weren't sure if it was droplet of sweat or a tear that fell down his chin.
"But it's no use telling your heart what to feel, right?" you sniffed, voice reduced to a faint whisper. After what felt like an eternity and then some more, Baekhyun lifted his gaze at you — his unblinking eyes fixated upon you and you saw the downward slant of his eyes, the flecks of amber in his teary irises, the frown that you wished to away. You felt ashamed for having contemplated — even if just for a second, that you'd have been better off without knowing him.
The wind picked up speed, the trees rustling under the effect of the gale. The street looked hollow, like the ghost of a once ebullient alley filled with busy locales. You felt the wind was knocking you out.
Baekhyun took the first move. He took a deep breath and with the gait of a resolute paladin he walked up to you, torso straight and shoulders so squared you suddenly felt small against him. But his face betrayed his feigned posture.
He took your face in his hands, his face so close you could feel his breath on your lips, and you wonder if it's cruel to think that the trail of tears drying on his cheeks are the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.
"I love you."
You're not sure who said it, or if any words were said at all. His dark eyes were so intensely fixated on yours, spoken words were unnecessary because for once you knew what he was trying to convey to you.
Baekhyun chuckled — this time a genuine, hearty laugh. His frame leaned into yours, and wasted no time to seal his feelings on your lips.
"Baekhyun," you gasped as you broke away from his deepening kiss. He hummed in response as he rested his lips on yours, soft hands coming up to firmly grip your arms from pushing him away from you.
"Baekhyun, you're shirtless."
"I know," he murmured. "I'm still also drunk, but you're my girlfriend now so it's your responsibility." he grinned at you, smirk stretching out impossibly wide at your mortification.
The cicadas began to sing their song once again.
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