Baekhyun finds himself staring at his phone, bottom lip between his teeth. He has no idea how to do this. 

He'd asked Jongdae for Chanyeol's number to apologize, but now that he's staring at his keyboard, he's drawn a blank. He can't think of a single way to coherently express what had happened in the coffee shop, to properly apologize. He knows Chanyeol must hate him now. 

"Should I say that I got his number from you?" Baekhyun asks nervously. Jongdae looks up from his laptop screen, face illuminated and eyes shimmering with something mysterious. 

"I don't think he'd question it, though. It's probably not necessary. Just text him what you want and say it's Baekhyun." 

Baekhyun frowns, turning to stare at the blank screen in front of him. Jongdae makes it sound like it's easy. He shakes his head and types, hoping that whatever his fingers decide, it's coherent.

to: chanyeol
hey this is baekhyun. i want to say i'm sorry for what happened at the coffee shop. i was feeling sick and didn't want to throw up on you.

Baekhyun regrets mentioning vomit the second he sends it, and he immediately types out an amendment. He needs to save whatever image he still has, needs to distract Chanyeol from that comment. 

to: chanyeol
and also sorry for what happened in psych. i've been really out of it lately.

Was that enough? Baekhyun panics; he doesn't want to triple text. He catches Jongdae smirking at him and decides that, yeah, who cares. Jongdae's already going to make fun of him for this, he might as well go all the way and finish on a good note. 

to: chanyeol
i'll see you tomorrow for skating practice. dress warmly. 

He throws his phone onto the pillow next to him, heart racing. His fever has gone down by now, but he's still on edge due to the nightmare and Chanyeol sighting. He should've waited to text Chanyeol when he wasn't feeling so out of it, when he could trust that his heart wasn't going to explode at the thought of confrontation.

"Send it?" Jongdae asks knowingly. Baekhyun nods and looks back to where his phone is laying. There are no notifications, and it should soothe his nerves, but instead it only intensifies the sweat on his palms.

Then he hears a ding and watches as his screen lights up, Chanyeol's name prominently displayed. Baekhyun's heart skips -- out of fear, he tells himself -- and he swipes to read it with shaky fingers. 

from: chanyeol
It's okay! I'm just glad you're okay! P.S. Are you still sick? Do you need anything? I can be over in five minutes. (I run a lot.)

Baekhyun almost screams at how Chanyeol that text is. He's so ing nice, so positive. He has perfect grammar. He actually writes out "P.S." What a dork, Baekhyun thinks, cheeks flushing. He suddenly feels like a fool for getting scared earlier, for freaking out. He knows it was a reflex, but he honestly can't think of someone more harmless than Chanyeol.

to: chanyeol
no im ok. my roommate is taking care of me. thx for asking

He feels a little dismissive, but maybe that's the way he should be. Maybe he'd given Chanyeol too much leeway, allowed him to feel too comfortable. But then Baekhyun's mind flashses to the kind eyes, the glimmering smile that Chanyeol shows so frequently. Chanyeol is nice, he decides. He deserves kindness in return, deserves a skating teacher that isn't so messed up and weird. 

"You look seriously sad. Did Chanyeol say something mean?" Jongdae pipes up, concern lacing his normally loud voice. Baekhyun gulps and shakes his head, no.

It's the opposite; Chanyeol is too nice, overly kind. He makes Baekhyun feel comfortable despite the dream. His brain had definitely been wrong. If anything, Chanyeol needed protecting from him. 

--

"You're already doing better," Baekhyun says encouragingly, trying his very best to be kind with the tall boy. He doesn't want a repeat of the cafe -- he'd be mortified if his fears ever overtook him like that again. 

With a day between his nightmare and meeting Chanyeol, he's calmed down considerably. He doesn't feel fear when he sees his jaw or large hands anymore. Instead, there's a sort of drop in his stomach, but that's manageable, Baekhyun reasons.

Chanyeol is almost sweating, despite the fact that he's done little to nothing this lesson. Baekhyun had taken advantage of his newfound ability to stand and glide when pushed -- and now he's sliding around the entire rink, Baekhyun's small hands urging him on every few feet. He can't believe it's such a task to keep his balance; this should be easier than it is. 

But what he's really exhausted from is the way Baekhyun's fingers send a tingle down his spine, settling uncomfortably in his stomach. He can't get the thrill he feels each time out of his head, can't stop the way he focuses only on Baekhyun's soft breathing and gentle fingertips. 

He refocuses himself to watch his feet skid over the ice, focusing on angling them how Baekhyun had shown him earlier. He can't fall, not when he knows Baekhyun's slim fingers will be there to catch him. He's scared of the feeling Baekhyun gives him with each soft look, each soft touch. 

After their last meeting, Chanyeol had been convinced Baekhyun hated his guts. But now, Baekhyun's closer than ever, silky hair and pink cheeks only a meter away. In his usual tight black leggings and sweatshirt (this time, only slightly oversized and a dark purple,) Baekhyun is breathtaking, in a casual, intimidating, perfect Baekhyun way.

"I'm not even doing anything. You're doing all the work." 

He worries for a second that Baekhyun will think he's being snippy, will run away like the coffee shop. At this point, Chanyeol would do anything to make sure Baekhyun isn't scared of him. He opens his mouth to apologize, but he can't get a word out before Baekhyun responds in an equally annoyed tone. 

"Okay, then do the work yourself. Go for it," Baekhyun's face is cocky, challenging. Chanyeol frowns a little when Baekhyun's hands don't find his hips like they had been -- he's on his own now. 

"I can't." 

Chanyeol watches as a tiny smile overtakes Baekhyun's face, obviously pleased that he's proven his point. 

"If you want to be taught, listen to me. If you're already a professional skater, why are you here?" Baekhyun teases, but his eyes are free from malice. 

Chanyeol in a deep breath when Baekhyun skates in front of him, grabbing his two hands on the way. Baekhyun notes that Chanyeol's hands are soft and warm, unlike the rough ones in his dream. Internally, his brain sings with relief. He has no reason to fear Chanyeol; he doesn't think even his brain could create a fake connection between the two. 

"Okay, watch me," Baekhyun says in his instructing voice, knowledgeable and soft. Chanyeol nods automatically, gently squeezing Baekhyun's smaller hands as a way of telling him he's ready, and the shorter boy's heart thrums at the gesture. 

Baekhyun is facing him, skating backwards, hands wrapped in his. He's pulling Chanyeol slowly down the side of the rink, soft eyes focused on Chanyeol's form. 

"You see how my feet are moving?" Chanyeol looks down to stare at Baekhyun's white skates, at the way they cut through with every gentle movement, languidly tracing waves against the ice. "Okay, now watch." 

Baekhyun spins then, hands guiding Chanyeol's larger ones to rest on his waist. Chanyeol turns red at the now compromising position, at the taut muscles he can feel on Baekhyun's abdomen, at the curve of his slim waist. He wants to retract his hands and look away, but Baekhyun's hands won't let him, holding him close. 

"Look at how my feet are moving now." 

Chanyeol looks down, noticing that Baekhyun's feet are moving much more vertically and horizontally instead of curved. There's less flow to it, more technicality. 

"Hold on," Baekhyun warns softly, and then he's speeding up and Chanyeol is being pulled along by strong hands on a firm waist. He feels like he's flying, like Baekhyun is going at a supersonic speed, though he knows that he's watched Baekhyun go faster than this before. 

"Keep your hands on my waist," Baekhyun reminds, as if sensing that Chanyeol's lost in awe and not holding on as tightly. Chanyeol blushes at the reminder of their position; somehow, hearing it out loud is embarrassing. "Watch my feet again."

Chanyeol does as he's told, hands tightening around Baekhyun's waist and eyes trained to the smaller's skates. 

Now it seems like a mixture of both, like Baekhyun is running with no effort. It's fluid, but something about it is desperate, rough. Chanyeol doesn't understand how the Baekhyun's ankles bend so easily, conforming to match the ice and take it all in turn. There's something special about this, when Baekhyun's speeding down the ice, that makes Chanyeol's throat close up. It's so beautiful.

"See how I'm not just going back and forth?" He hears Baekhyun's voice as if he's far away. "And it's not all curves. See that? That's how you keep your speed up with control." 

Chanyeol makes a sound in agreement, still transfixed on the feeling of Baekhyun's waist under his hands, at the way his legs move so quickly and gracefully in front of him. Baekhyun goes a little red at the large hands fully wrapped around him. He ignores the way his stomach drops again, like when he'd first seen Chanyeol this afternoon, instead telling himself to calm down.

You lift girls all the time. You get lifted all the time. Touching isn't a big deal. 

As if to prove something to himself, Baekhyun lays a hand on top of Chanyeol's left. He can feel the thrumming of Chanyeol's pulse, the heat his large hand gives off, the way his fingers curl tighter into the shorter boy's waist. 

When Baekhyun finally slows down and lifts his hand off of Chanyeol's, the boy lets a small breath he hadn't realized he was holding. It's like a spell has been broken and the two seperate almost instantly, Chanyeol gliding away with wobbly legs, this time completely unrelated to his level of skating talent. 

Baekhyun coughs a little and goes to practice his routine, telling Chanyeol with a wavering voice to go around the rink as many times as he can, moving his feet like Baekhyun had just shown him. 

-- 

"You guys don't understand," Chanyeol laments, ignoring the giggles his teammates throw his way. "It's not like us." 

"What do you mean?" Kyungsoo's voice is deep and slightly confused, bordering on amused. 

"It's different! Like, here, Sehun, stand up." 

The tall boy laughs and stands, discarding his hat by the foot of Kyungsoo's bed. He nods, bracing himself for whatever the captain is about to do. Kyungsoo shakes his head and checks to make sure no valuables are left out in his dorm. There's no guarantee what Chanyeol and Sehun will do -- they've broken things before. 

Chanyeol rams into Sehun, shoulders hitting violently, and pulls the lanky boy into a brief hug. He slaps his back and pulls away just as quickly, a proud smile on his face, looking like he's proved something.

"See? That's how we are on the field. It's just like, casual, you know," Chanyeol seems to think that he's made a breakthrough in what he's explaining, but the other two boys look just as confused as before. 

"And?" Sehun questions, sounding annoyed. 

"Well, when it's figure skating, everything's way more intimate. You have to be close and touch each other and -- " 

"Are you sure your instructor isn't just making a pass at you?" Kyungsoo speaks up, thick eyebrows raising. There's a smirk folding the corners of his lips, eyes studying the tallest boy carefully. 

Chanyeol stares at him, mouth agape, and tries to ignore the way his heart jumps at those words. Baekhyun wouldn't, he's sure, Baekhyun doesn't like me. 

"What?" Chanyeol sputters out. 

"Jongin's been teaching me, and he doesn't hold my hands or get close to me," Kyungsoo shrugs innocently. 

At this, Sehun lets out a high-pitched cackle, shoulders shaking. "That's because you scare Jongin. He's had a crush on you for years. He just knows you'd snap him in half if he touched you like that." 

Kyungsoo doesn't seem to have any prior knowledge about Jongin's feelings, much less the fear of him, and it's the shortest boy's turn to color pink. Chanyeol watches as Kyungsoo looks away, suddenly quiet and awkward. 

"He's not scared of me," Kyungsoo grumbles as he plays with the frayed sleeve of his hoodie. "We're friends."

"Okay, okay, you guys are friends. Anyway, Chanyeol, back to the guy who likes you?" 

Chanyeol shakes his head frantically, suddenly embarrassed. 

"He doesn't like me. He's actually been avoiding me, so," Chanyeol rubs the back of his neck. The other two boys make furtive eye contact and suddenly they're pulling Chanyeol to sit on the bed with them, gossip mode fully on.

"Oh?" Sehun giggles, poking a pointy finger into Chanyeol's sides. 

"It's not like that. Nevermind. I can't talk to you guys about anything." 

"Wait, wait," Kyungsoo's voice rings through, stopping Chanyeol from getting up. "Byun Baekhyun, right? I've heard he's, uh, not very nice. I didn't think he'd even agree to teach you, honestly." 

Chanyeol feels a little offended at the description, conjuring up the image of a smiling Baekhyun in front of his eyes, thinking of the way his features relaxed when he focused in psych. How is Baekhyun not nice?

"What? No!" 

Kyungsoo shrugs, shoulders brushing Sehun's wide ones. At this, Sehun looks up and nods a little, mumbling a faint, "Are you sure he lets you touch him? I've heard he freaks out when people get near him. Like, freaks out." 

Chanyeol thinks of the small hand that had wrapped around his, anchoring him to the waist of the shorter boy, of the way he'd grabbed his hands that day. 

"I don't think you guys know him very well," Chanyeol is resolute. Baekhyun had only freaked out once in front of him, but it was never violent or mean, just running away from the coffee shop. And he'd apologized that night -- he'd even searched for Chanyeol's number to do it. 

"I just heard rumors about him in high school, okay? He's the pride of the figure skating department and kind of," Sehun looks away from Chanyeol's intense glare to fidget with the bedspread. "Kind of . . . off." 

Chanyeol huffs and stands then, purposely letting Sehun's hat fall on the floor, where he's sure to stand on it. 

"I'll show you guys, he's nice and definitely not off, whatever that means." 

Kyungsoo and Sehun spare a regretful look at each other as Chanyeol storms out of the room, obviously agitated. Maybe they should've said anything after all.

-- 

Chanyeol is determined. He'll prove Sehun and Kyungsoo wrong; he'll make sure to clear Baekhyun's name. Isn't this part of Jongdae's request? he reasons.

The lecture hasn't started yet when he walks in, spotting the empty seat next to Baekhyun like always. He'd been sitting there every class but he'd never forced Baekhyun to interact with him, mostly because he's scared to push Baekhyun too far, to lose anything between them. 

"Hey," Chanyeol says in his low voice, sliding into his chair. Baekhyun looks up, eyes shining and black hair silky, and nods towards Chanyeol in greeting. 

"Baekhyun," he starts, gauging the look on the shorter boy's face when he says it. He looks surprised, but definitely not scared or angry, and so he proceeds. "How did you meet Jongin?" 

Baekhyun looks confused, but it seems like a comfortable topic. Baekhyun moves to respond and Chanyeol watches the way his pink lips open, the way his two front teeth stick out a little, the way every part of him moves within a second. Fascinated, Chanyeol almost misses the answer.

"We were both freshmen here. We had to do pair skating, and I was really scrawny back then, so I didn't feel confident lifting a girl or anything," Baekhyun smiles a little as he says it, embarrassed.

Chanyeol chances a look at the strong arm muscles and he remembers the feeling of abs, of the muscles that make up every part of Baekhyun. He gulps a little and ignores the way Baekhyun notices, the way their eyes meet in the middle, somewhat of an understanding laying between them.

"So, we partnered up. I let him do the lifting, and I focused on helping his technique. We were a good team, so we became friends," Baekhyun finishes his story with a small smile, a little shrug.

He's overjoyed that Chanyeol asked him about his personal life, that someone cares about the dumb figure skating stories he's told Jongdae hundreds of times. It's refreshing to have someone else listening, to have a tall boy ogling his biceps in the middle of psych. 

"My friend Kyungsoo knows him, so I was just curious," Chanyeol shrugs, trying to look like he wasn't trying extremely hard to get a conversation started. He'd planned out what to ask for two days, and Jongin was the best he could come up with. It's a little pitiful, really. 

"Is he on the team?" Baekhyun seems genuinely interested, and it sends a pleasing shock through Chanyeol's system. Baekhyun, of course, knows the answer -- Jongdae had told him the first day he heard about Chanyeol -- but he doesn't want to stop the sparkle in the taller's eyes, doesn't want to give up on the conversation. 

"Yeah, Kyungsoo's on the team. He's short, but really strong, don't be fooled." 

"Unlike you. You're all skinny and scrawny," Baekhyun points out, a small smile forming on his pink lips, a teasing glimmer in his eye. Chanyeol should feel belittled by the comment, but all he can think is how pretty Baekhyun is when he smiles. 

"I'm lanky, thank you very much. And I'm very strong, okay?" Chanyeol asserts, flexing. The effect is lost due to the sweatshirt he has on, and Baekhyun snickers under his breath, obviously amused. 

"Okay, okay, you're lanky," Baekhyun agrees, flipping through his notebook to find the place where he'd last stopped notes. 

"Are you free Saturday?" Chanyeol asks abruptly. Baekhyun looks up from his notebook, kind of shocked, and shakes his head before he can think about it. Chanyeol's smile gleams and he puts his chin in the palm of his hand, eyes widening as if he's begging. 

"Then, do you want to go to a party? My friend's throwing one. I think it'd be fun," Chanyeol studies the face that Baekhyun makes at the word party. "You know, outside of practice bonding." 

Baekhyun knows that there shouldn't be bonding, in or outside of practice, but the look in Chanyeol's eyes has him wavering. Chanyeol is suddenly thankful that not many people sit by them in this class -- this was seriously embarrassing. He feels like he's asking Baekhyun out on a date. 

"I could go for a few minutes, I guess," Baekhyun agrees, cheeks heating up.

He turns away then, focusing on his notebook again, and Chanyeol tries to calm his shaking hands before the lecture starts. He feels like he just asked Baekhyun out and Baekhyun said yes. 

--

sorry this took so long schools a and also ive been really sick and yeah 

next chapter will be a little more interesting lol 

love u guys! pls comment and give me feedback if u like it or not!!!! it's so so so appreciated! ok bye <3