EARLY OCTOBER, EAST HIGH SCHOOL, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — WEDNESDAY

It’s 11:30 AM when the school bell finally rings to signal the end of the class period. Chanyeol rushes to gather his stuff into his bag, zipping it half-closed before pushing out from his desk and heading for the door. He’s only taken one step outside of the classroom before he feels a hand grab at the hem of his hoodie and pull him to the side.

“Woah,” he says as he stumbles before his gaze meets big, brown eyes staring up at him. It doesn’t take long for him to feel an immediate warmth spreading from his chest to his face.

The corner of Kyungsoo’s lip quirks up in a smile as he looks at him. He smooths Chanyeol’s hoodie against his hip before pulling his hand away. “Hey.”

Chanyeol carefully nudges the two of them out of the flow of students milling past, a shy grin on his face. He purposefully leaves only a few inches between him and Kyungsoo so that their knees touch. “Hey, you.” he replies coolly.

Kyungsoo’s dressed as sensibly as always in a navy T-shirt tucked into his favorite pair of jeans with a dark blue flannel on top. His cuffed jeans reveal a flash of pink flowers and white rabbits on his socks, his black low-tops completing the ensemble. Chanyeol smiles because he recognizes the socks from the pack he bought for Kyungsoo last month.

Chanyeol himself is dressed the way he always dresses: dark jeans, gray-white sneakers scribbled over with various doodles of the past, and a simple hoodie over a graphic tee from middle school that he can still juuuust about squeeze into. 

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Kyungsoo says as he leans a shoulder against the lockers, his fingers absently picking at the buttons of his flannel. His smile is easy and warm.

Chanyeol raises a skeptical brow. “I walked you to homeroom this morning.”

“Well, I was trying to be… cute.” Kyungsoo huffs and looks away shyly for a second, rubbing a hand against his hair. It’s a little longer than it was in the summer. Chanyeol resists the urge to reach out and feel the growth for himself.

Chanyeol watches Kyungsoo for a second then nudges his knee against his. “I missed you, too.” he admits. That gets him a smile. “Free to study right now?”

Kyungsoo answers with a simple nod before following Chanyeol’s lead down the hallway towards the library on the other end of the building. The crowd hasn’t thinned out yet and Chanyeol can feel Kyungsoo’s fingers grabbing at his shirt again so that they don’t get separated. He spares a glance over his shoulder at the other boy and hesitates before silently offering his hand for him to hold instead. 

Kyungsoo blinks at it for a second, his heart skipping a beat. He looks up hoping to meet Chanyeol’s eye but the taller boy’s gaze is focused on the path in front of him. Kyungsoo allows himself a moment of hesitation before graciously accepting, holding onto the warmth of Chanyeol’s hand and smiling to himself. Chanyeol squeezes his fingers and continues to guide the two of them through the sea of students in the corridor.

It’s been about two and a half months since the events of the summer and neither Kyungsoo nor Chanyeol knows what to call their relationship--if they can even call it that. 

After Chanyeol had realized his not-quite-straightness and admitted his feelings for Kyungsoo, he’d become a little wary of labels. Kyungsoo had been patient and kind enough to guide Chanyeol through some of his self-discovery, assuring him that nothing had to be concrete if he didn’t want it to be. As it turns out, what they have with each other had ended up without a label, too, but Chanyeol is quite keen on keeping that intact. If there’s one thing in the midst of all this chaos that he’s sure of, it’s how he feels about Kyungsoo.

Admittedly, the two of them already move in ways that are borderline coupley--eating lunch together, walking each other to class, texting under the desk during lectures--but a weird paranoia catches up to Chanyeol before he can slap a name on the two of them. What if Chanyeol was to start labeling them as something Kyungsoo doesn’t agree with? What would happen then?

Still, even though it has no name, Chanyeol can feel that this… whatever-it-is that they have is something special. He knows that the butterflies in his stomach go absolutely insane when Kyungsoo is close to him. He knows that when Kyungsoo talks, he could listen to him speak for hours and hours about absolutely anything in the world. He knows that when Kyungsoo kisses him, his heart doesn’t just do somersaults—it performs an entire goddamned gymnastics routine in his chest. Plus, there’s a certain comfort in knowing that Kyungsoo is there for him. Sometimes he wonders if the other boy knows he’s there for him, too.

Chanyeol thinks about it now as he watches Kyungsoo take notes on a chapter from his biology textbook while sitting across from him in the school library. They’ve begun to meet up here at least once a week during their free period, sometimes to study, but mostly just to have each other’s company. It’s yet another detail in their regular routines together that Chanyeol holds onto.

Kyungsoo looks up after a while when he notices Chanyeol staring at him. He gestures with a lift of his chin at the empty space on Chanyeol’s side of the table. “Shouldn’t you at least pretend to be studying?”

“Mm. Maybe. But I like watching you work.” Chanyeol replies, wiggling his eyebrows at Kyungsoo and winning a laugh. 

Another moment of silence passes when Kyungsoo gets back to work, but Chanyeol speaks up again. “Hey, I’ve got a question.”

“Shoot.” Kyungsoo says, eyes focused on his journal as he highlights certain phrases in his notes.

“Have I met your parents before?”

At that, Kyungsoo freezes and looks up from his notes with wide eyes. “What?”

Chanyeol drums his fingertips on the tabletop in a nervous, stuttered beat. “What?”

Kyungsoo blinks away his initial confusion, his lips twitching in an attempt to hide his surprise. “I don’t think so,” he answers to Chanyeol’s earlier question. “Why?”

“Dunno. I guess I’ve just been thinking.” Chanyeol says.

“Of meeting my parents?” Kyungsoo says skeptically. 

“Is that a bad thing?” Chanyeol asks.

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Why would it be bad, Chanyeol?”

That’s when Chanyeol hesitates. Meeting someone’s parents usually means you have something serious enough that it requires parental approval. Is what they have serious? Is there even something here to be serious about?

“Depends. Are you…” Chanyeol starts, spreading his fingers open on top of the desk, “...talking to anyone else?”

Kyungsoo blinks at him. “Talking?” 

“You know, like we do.” Chanyeol says, skirting around the term flirting.

Kyungsoo cracks a smile then. “And how do we talk, Chanyeol?” 

Chanyeol can’t help but smile back at him. Can’t help but bask in the glow of his grin. It relaxes him a little bit. “You know…” he stalls, gesticulating randomly. “Kissy faces and hearts and whatnot.”

“My mom and I text with kissy faces and hearts a lot. Is that what you’re worried about?”

Chanyeol sputters. “No, I meant—are you talking that way to… any other boys?”

“Ohh,” Kyungsoo says with understanding after a pause so pregnant it was having labor contractions. “You want to know if we’re exclusive?”

Warmth spreads across Chanyeol’s face so quickly that it’s almost spontaneous. “W-well, I wouldn’t have put it that way—”

“How would you have put it?” Kyungsoo puts his pen down and instead rests his cheek against his fist, raising an eyebrow with a teasing smile. “You want to know if there’s somebody else? Someone on the side? Another bachelor awaiting my rose?”

Chanyeol pouts at him. “Now you’re just being mean.”

Kyungsoo laughs, a rich, full sound that resonates within Chanyeol’s chest, buds of affection blooming in his ribs. He reaches across and slides a hand up Chanyeol’s forearm, his thumb rubbing against the fabric of his hoodie. Chanyeol takes the opportunity to lace their fingers together, focusing his gaze on how their hands look as one before looking back at Kyungsoo.

“I thought you didn’t want to call us anything just yet.” Kyungsoo says in a soft voice like he’s sharing a secret.

Chanyeol’s stomach flips when he hears the word us. “No, I…” he pauses and squeezes his hand. “I didn’t. Not unless I knew you were up for it, of course.”

That’s when the infectious blush colors Kyungsoo’s cheeks as well. He looks flattered—pleased, almost—and Chanyeol feels a weight he hadn’t known was in his chest begin to lift. This must mean that the feeling is mutual. It means Kyungsoo knows this is special, too. 

In all honesty, Kyungsoo still struggles to come to terms with the reality that his silly little summer crush on the basketball team’s co-captain has turned into this. This delightful back and forth that he’s begun to look forward to every time he comes to school in the morning. Seeing Chanyeol smile just for him makes his brain short-circuit and sometimes he still checks to make sure he’s the one it’s meant for. Even now, holding Chanyeol’s hand, he can feel his heart stuttering in his chest because he can’t fully believe it. He can’t believe that he wanted something and was given it so kindly. 

The hardest part is putting that kind of feeling into words. Two months seems like a short time but feels so long. It’s surprising that the two of them have come this far and spent this much time with each other and yet are still unsure of how wanted their company actually is.

“So…” Kyungsoo begins, rubbing his thumb against Chanyeol’s knuckles as he asks the age-old question: “What are we?”

Chanyeol mouth curves in an amused shape. He racks his brain for options. “Partners?”

Kyungsoo quickly shuts it down with a wrinkle of his nose. “Nope. Next.”

“Lovers,” Chanyeol offers.

“Gross.” Kyungsoo laughs with a shake of his head. “Next.”

“Well, how about you think of one this time?” Chanyeol says, pouting and exaggerating the hurt in his expression after his ideas were shot down. 

Kyungsoo draws his hand back and picks up his pen again, tapping it against his lip in thought. He makes a big show of listing down Chanyeol’s two rejected ideas in the margins of his notes and crossing them out, hovering his pen tip over the paper as he comes up with his own contender. Chanyeol stares intently at him again because he wasn’t lying when he said he likes to watch him work.

After a moment of pondering, realization washes over Kyungsoo’s expression and he starts to write something. “Why don’t we just keep it simple?”

Chanyeol peers over at the journal then back at Kyungsoo. “What’s the simple choice?” he asks.

Kyungsoo is quiet as he finishes whatever he’s jotting down, setting his pen down against the desk with an air of finality. He doesn’t answer just yet, instead tilting his head up and flashing Chanyeol a smug smile as he turns the journal around for him to read. Chanyeol looks down at the page, at the words written there and the small doodle of the two of them that Kyungsoo had drawn. His eyebrows lift up ever so slightly in surprise when he reads Kyungsoo’s choice of label for the two of them.

“We’re boyfriends,” Kyungsoo declares matter-of-factly.

Hearing the words come out of Kyungsoo’s mouth makes Chanyeol practically turn to jelly in his seat.

 

---

 

“BOYFRIENDS?”

It’s after basketball practice that afternoon when Chanyeol breaks the news to Baekhyun and he already regrets it. 

He slaps a hand over Baekhyun’s mouth quickly with so much force that he knocks him back into the wall of the locker room. “Keep your voice down!”

“What about boyfriends?” Jongdae appears from the showers, rubbing his wet hair with a towel. “Boyfriends who?”

Chanyeol glares at him and claps his other hand over his mouth, too. “Shut. Up. The entire team will hear you!” 

Once he’s sure neither of them will blurt the B-word again, he releases the two of them. Baekhyun makes a show of wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand.

“I thought you weren’t going to call it anything,” Baekhyun says once he’s finished.

“I wasn’t!” Chanyeol says. “I didn’t want to in case Kyungsoo didn’t think we even had a thing. It’d be kind of embarrassing to have both of us telling different stories.”

Jongdae snorts. “You really thought Kyungsoo could be canoodling with anyone else the same way he does with you?” 

“What? It’s a valid fear,” Chanyeol counters. He frowns. “Did you just say canoodling?”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Chanyeol, please. The way he looks at you doesn’t even classify as whipped culture anymore. It’s the whipped way of life.”

Chanyeol blinks. “Well, how does he look at me?”

“With hearts for eyes,” Jongdae says, punching the taller boy in the shoulder like it should’ve been obvious. “You look at him the same way, you know.”

Now Chanyeol turns coy. He shrinks into himself, his tall body looking minuscule in his shyness. “Really?”

Baekhyun mock-retches into his hands and Chanyeol instinctively shoves him into the lockers. “God, look at you. You guys are so… what’s the word?”

“Smitten,” Jongdae supplies. “They’re little smitten kittens.”

“Well, that’s definitely grosser than boyfriends,” Baekhyun says, singing the word like a nursery rhyme. 

Jongdae raises a brow at Chanyeol. “Is that really what you settled on?”

“It was Kyungsoo’s idea.” Chanyeol says. “What’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t know, it seems kinda…” Jongdae begins. He mimics starting a car and revving forward, one hand swerving the wheel and the other keeping the towel around his waist secure.

Chanyeol blinks. “I have no idea what that means.”

“It just seems kinda fast.” Jongdae explains. “I mean, I know you guys have been seeing each other since the summer, but have you ever even been on any dates or whatever?”

“I don’t… think so?” Chanyeol pauses. “I mean, we go to the library to study together for free period sometimes.”

“Please don’t tell me you think that studying is a date, Chanyeol.” Baekhyun sighs, rubbing his temples. “Tell me you’re not that lame.” 

“Uhh… we eat lunch together sometimes?” Chanyeol says.

“Where, outside of campus?” Jongdae asks, folding his arms across his chest and raising an eyebrow. “Or just in the school cafeteria?”

Chanyeol’s silence is a complete answer and his two friends groan in response. 

“Damn it, Chanyeol, have you ever even been to his house before?” Baekhyun pries, exasperated. 

Chanyeol bites his lip. He knows the two of them spend plenty of time together during the school day and sometimes Chanyeol will give Kyungsoo a ride home if necessary, but other than that, they barely see each other off campus. When it’s laid out like that, they’re… practically strangers. 

“My God, we’ve broken him again.” Jongdae whispers, patting Chanyeol’s shocked face gingerly.

“Guys,” Chanyeol says urgently, grabbing his friends by their shoulders with a death grip. “I don’t know who my boyfriend is at all.” Using the B-word himself makes him feel gooey inside, but the current circumstances are also making him a little nauseous so the signals are confusing.

“Whoa, ease up on the dramatics, Yeol.” Baekhyun says as he tries to wrestle his shoulder out of the taller’s grip. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“Yeah, chill out, dude, you’re starting to spiral,” Jongdae says, shaking Chanyeol by the forearm.

Chanyeol sits himself down on the bench in the middle of the locker room and pouts. “Maybe I should’ve thought this through.”

“What, two months of gay summer escapades wasn’t enough time?” Baekhyun says with a snort that earns him a punch on the arm from Jongdae.

“You guys just need to get to know each other better. Maybe finally do things outside of the school?” Jongdae suggests.

Chanyeol scratches his head. “Well, earlier I talked to him about meeting his parents.”

The other two boys cry out in shock. “What?” Jongdae asks.

“Uh, didn’t you guys just decide you’re officially a thing?” Baekhyun says. “Doesn’t meeting the parents usually come later? Like, a lot later?”

“I can’t think of what else he’d be into,” Chanyeol mumbles shamefully.

“Trust me, there’s a million things to do before meeting his ing parents.” Jongdae says with exasperation. He plops down next to Chanyeol and knocks their shoulders together. “Look, next time you see him, just talk to him without his face off for once. Maybe you’ll actually learn more about his interests.”

“You say that like we’re always kissing,” Chanyeol points out with a frown. Saying that actually makes him realize he didn’t kiss Kyungsoo goodbye after their study session earlier… well, point taken.

“If some couples are attached at the hip, you two are the freaks who got attached at the mouth.” Baekhyun replies before sighing. “I swear, Chanyeol, you’re the most oblivious man on earth. Pay attention.”

 

---

to: yeol

from: kyungsoo

2:57PM

Did you get home safely, boyfriend?

 

to: kyungsoo

from: yeol

3:01PM

Oh my GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes

I did

…boyfriend

:D

 

to: yeol

from: kyungsoo

3:02PM

Hahahahahaha

You’re cute

to: kyungsoo

from: yeol

3:02PM

no u

<3

to: yeol

from: kyungsoo

3:03PM

I’m officially changing your name to “My Boyfriend” in my phone

to: kyungsoo

from: yeol

3:04PM

And I’m changing yours to “my sweet lover” rn

to: My Boyfriend

from: kyungsoo

3:04PM

Stop.

 

to: my sweet lover

from: yeol

3:05PM

YOU RESPONDED SO FAST BAHAHAASHFJAKDHSDFH

 

 

---

did anybody else really miss hsm!chansoo or was that just me for the last three years? LOL... this is me finishing up a draft i made quite a while ago. so relieved to finally be able to post this story! i've had the scenes in my head for all this time and inspiration has finally struck me. this first chapter is just a teaser for what's to come. please stay tuned for more chapters in the future! and please enjoy my other fics if you're interested :) i just reread "please don't look at me like that" and i finally understand why everyone was waiting for an update all these years... HAHAH. but omg anything older than that is so cringey... but you're free to browse i guess? ok. i'm rambling now LOL see you next update!