Feelings

It was 8 in the morning when Hyemi kept receiving phone calls from a very determined caller. She ignores it the first few times, thinking they were voice phishing attempts since they were common. But when the same caller ID keeps popping up every 5 minutes, interrupting her very much needed sleep, she knows she’s had enough. 

Angrily, she answers the call, gritting her teeth. “I’m sorry, the owner of this number is a few steps away from committing murder so unless you want to be an accomplice or victim, you should hang up now.” 

“Feisty,” Hyemi’s eyes shot open, the low, husky voice sounding a little too familiar. “It’s me, cupcake.” 

“Baekhyun?” 

“The one and only,” He chirps, and Hyemi could hear the hint of playfulness even through the phone. “Did you just wake up?” 

“Where did you get my number?” She sits up now, confusion written all over her face. “And why are you calling me so early in the morning?” 

“Can I answer you after you let me in? I’m freezing out here.” 

She furrowed her eyebrows, the evident confusion in her face doubling up by each second. She feels a little tug in her gut that pushes her off the comfort of her own bed and towards her bedroom window. A gasp escapes her when she sees Baekhyun standing by her door, phone pressed against his ear while he tries to warm himself up. Baekhyun looks up and sees her for a brief moment from where he was standing, but she ducks instantly to hide her messy bed look. 

“Nice nightie.” A low chuckle reverberates against her eardrums, and she inwardly curses. “Shut it! How do you know where I live, Baekhyun? Are you stalking me?”

“Come on, cupcake, you’re not all that,” Hyemi rolls her eyes. “Jongdae took me to his parents’ house once before, and I have really good memory. Can’t say the same about you though.” 

“What?” She sounds annoyed now, and Baekhyun smiles when he notices it in an instant. “I’m supposed to help you pack today, remember?”

“It’s eight in the freaking morning!” She whines, resisting the urge to throw a mini tantrum in her room, but she doesn’t need Baekhyun to any further. “You should have called me.”

“Sorry, but what am I doing now?” 

“You know what I mean, Byun Baekhyun.” She grits out, stomping her way towards her vanity to take a look at herself in the mirror. She widens her eyes at the atrocity that beholds her, unintentionally letting out a soft shriek that startles the man on the other line. 

“Hyemi? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” 

She flushes red. “N-no it’s fine, I’m fine,” She shakes her head and puts her phone on speaker before placing it down onto the vanity table, rushing to smoothen out her hair that’s a wild mess right now. “Sorry, I’ll be right down.” 

“Thanks, cupcake, I’m glad you decide to before I freeze to death here – ”

“Say anything further and I will actually let you freeze to death.” She threatens. “Just give me five minutes, I need to change.”

“Aw, the nightie was nice though…” 

“Thin ice, Byun Baekhyun! Watch yourself.” 

She disappears into the bathroom in a hurry after hearing him laugh, rolling her eyes in annoyance while she does her business. She washes her face thoroughly and puts on a little bit of makeup, the idea of looking like a pale ghost in front of Baekhyun became an unacceptable scenario to her. She walks out in 3 minutes, immediately changing into a hoodie and some comfy sweatpants. By the time she was done, it had been 5 minutes already, breaking her usual record. 

She takes a peek at the man at the door from her bedroom window, watching him look around towards the garden in the front yard where she planted some flowers with her mother. He was walking slowly, careful not to ruin any of the flowers she planted. 

“So cute,” She smiles to herself. 

“I really hope you’re talking about me, cupcake.” 

Hyemi clasps a hand over , her eyes immediately looking for her phone and notices that the call was still ongoing. She was silent for a long time, thinking of ways to get out of this little predicament she put herself into. She was very sure Baekhyun was biting back his laughter. 

She clears , composing herself. “Come on, Baekhyun, you’re not all that.” 

“Now we both know that’s a lie.” Baekhyun chirps, and she scoffs. 

Hyemi walks out of her own bedroom, and down into the empty living room. Her parents were out of town, visiting their grandparents for the weekend so Hyemi had the house all to herself for the remainder of the week. 

She drags herself towards the front door and opens it wide, squinting her eyes disapprovingly towards the male in front of her while hanging up the call. He grins at her like a puppy, and Hyemi was so close to faltering. 

“Good morning, cupcake. Sleep well?” 

She glares at him, hard. 

“You know… I don’t like you very much.” 

He shrugs, “I can fix that.” 

She leaves the door open, letting him follow her while he laughs, closing the door behind him shut. As she leaned against the wall by the door, she observed his every movement with her arms crossed over her chest. He discards his thick jacket, revealing him in just a plain white shirt and ripped jeans. 

She rolls her eyes at him instantly when his playful eyes meet hers, “You should have called me last night, Baekhyun. I wasn’t prepared!” 

“Now where’s the fun in that?” 

“How did you even get my number?” 

“Well,” He steps into the living room and walks around the comfy space, examining the place. “I asked Jongdae at first, who had to make me promise I won’t do any funny business with you, but in the end, Jongin gave me your number.” 

“Wait, you asked Jongdae, but Jongin was the one who gave you?”

She looks at him in confusion, and he grins boyishly. It catches Hyemi off guard a little, how ridiculously handsome he looks from where she’s standing.  “I may have taunted Jongdae a little bit.”

“What did you say?” 

Baekhyun is looking at her now, eyes dark but there was still a twinkle of mischief in them so Hyemi isn’t completely intimidated. “You don’t want to know, trust me.” 

“You’re unbelievable.” 

“Anyway!” He quickly diverts the topic to his favour. He turns to look at her, hands buried inside his jean pockets. “Should we start now? The earlier, the better.” 

Hyemi sighs, “Right. Do you want anything to drink or eat though?”

“You have coffee?” 

“Your lucky day, Byun Baekhyun,” she smiles. “I make the best coffee in the world.” 

Baekhyun has had enough coffee in the world to know what he wants in his cup. Back in university, coffee was one of the few things he needed to consume daily, and ever since then, he has always been picky. There was a specific amount of coffee and sugar that could constitute the perfect coffee cup for him, and the only person who ever got his coffee right was Kyungsoo. 

So when Hyemi says she makes the best coffee in the world, he doesn’t take her word for it. He should have though. Because as soon as he tasted the warm liquid on the tip of his tongue, he swore he felt something warm bubbling up inside him. 

Hyemi was leaning against the island countertop, watching him with an expectant look. “Do you like it?” 

“Cupcake, I’m very picky with my coffee, you know,” She frowns, confused when she sees him smiling, a look of astonishment written on his face. 

“But this is exactly how I like my coffee.”

She brightens instantly, and Baekhyun gets blinded by it for a brief moment. “No one has ever managed to get my coffee right except for Kyungsoo.” 

“So I’m second place after Kyungsoo?” She feigns disappointment, but Baekhyun catches the flicker of mischief flashing through her soft hazel eyes. “Well, you’re the first in the female category?” 

“Among other things?” 

“Hm, I’ll think about it.” 

“Right, I forgot,” Baekhyun raises an eyebrow and she scrunches her nose in distaste. “You probably have a roster of girls on your phone.” 

His lips stretch out into a dangerous smirk, and Hyemi groans, already knowing exactly what he was going to say. “Someone sounds jea – ”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll scream bloody murder!”

“How did you even know what I was going to say?” He responds, biting back his own laughter. 

It was a little strange for Hyemi, to know enough of the mind of Byun Baekhyun that she’s able to predict the next thing that comes out of his mouth. She doesn’t remember how it happened, but there was just an instant connection with the male. Conversations flew endlessly and effortlessly with him, and their playful banters with each other were just the same too. 

After the movie yesterday, they all went back to Jongin’s shared apartment with Chanyeol and Sehun to have a few drinks. While the rowdy boys were playing an aggressive game of Uno, Baekhyun and Hyemi sat by the sofa and talked about almost everything. They talked and talked until it was really late into the night, both of them unaware of the amount of time that has passed.

It was like Baekhyun was a really old friend of hers that she hadn’t seen in years, and Hyemi was really grateful for that. She was thankful of him for being so warm and comfortable and hands–

“Are you psychic?” He snaps her out of her own thoughts, and Hyemi is met with that same playful grin that she grew fond of the moment she first saw it. 

She starts glaring at him. “Just hurry and finish your coffee! You can start by assembling the boxes in the living room while I look through my stuff.” 

She leaves a very amused Baekhyun in the kitchen as she stomps her way to the living room, making a disgruntled noise. The living room was quite a mess with all of her stuff sprawled around the space. Her parents thought it would be nice to look through her old stuff and see whether she would like to bring some of them  to her new apartment or leave it here. 

Hyemi agrees on the sentiment, but she also underestimated how much she loved to hoard things for the sake of memories. 

She picks up an old high school yearbook, wiping away years of accumulated dust from the hard paperback cover. She opens it and smiles when she sees Jongdae’s and Jongin’s signature on the front page by her name, digits slowly tracing the sloppy handwriting.

“So Jongdae has always had the worst handwriting, huh?” Baekhyun says from behind, and she jumps in surprise, turning her head around to see Baekhyun peering from her shoulder. 

He leans closer to get a better read of the writing, and in doing so, Hyemi is left staring at his beautiful side profile. She blinks rapidly and stupidly, suddenly finding it hard to breathe from the sudden closeness. His cologne consumed her easily, the smell of vanilla and musk clouding her thoughts, rendering her speechless. 

Just when she thought it wasn’t going to get any worse, Baekhyun takes another step further and starts resting his chin on her shoulder. She could feel the warmth seeping from his body, his figure nearly engulfing her smaller frame. One more move from him and he would have been back hugging her already, and Hyemi prays desperately in her mind that he doesn’t for the sake of calming the monstrous fire within her.

He was just so close, and she tenses horribly, unable to move or breathe at all, but Baekhyun was too focused on Jongdae’s stupid handwriting to even realise it. “What the hell was he writing?” 

Thinking it would be best to ignore him and his breath fanning against her skin, she looks at the yearbook and reads out the sentence, careful not to sound strained: “‘Congrats, our future teacher, oppa is very proud of you.’ ”

Surprised, Baekhyun turns to look at her. “You wanted to be a teacher?”

It doesn’t take him long to realise just what he did, because when she turns to look at him, this time, he was the one who was left breathless. 

Baekhyun doesn’t miss the way her cheeks redden, her soft plush lips pressed firmly onto a thin line and the nervous wandering of her eyes. Yet, even when she looks distracted like this, Baekhyun thought she was the most beautiful girl in the whole world. 

His eyes scan over her furrowed eyebrows down to her eyes, the twinkle in them pulling him into the depths of her timeless beauty. But he doesn’t stop there, so entranced by her and her lavender-filled scent. He just couldn’t stop looking for more of her so he looked further down, admiring how well-sculpted her nose was until his eyes finally landed onto her soft plush lips. 

His stare lingers for a moment, and Hyemi could feel her heart about to leap out of her chest.

She clears and finally moves away after a few seconds, unable to look him in the eye so she opts to hand the yearbook to him instead. “Yeah, I did – I mean, I still d