It wasn’t a date.

Baekhyun wanted to make that clear. It was just a friendly outing with an extremely tall, surprisingly attractive, child-faced, heart-melting voiced…

It wasn’t a date!

Baekhyun let out a frustrated argghhhh and received the resulting stares of what the hell is his problem from onlookers around him.

Great. Just great.

He could feel his brain crying at its neglect.

They still hadn’t said a word to each other.

They found themselves buying ice-cream from a cute little Ice-Cream, Waffles & Gelato store…at ten o’clock in the morning. Even if this was normal on a usual date (which this was not), it seemed a little warped in their circumstance. Maybe Baekhyun just wanted something to numb his brain so he didn’t have to go through this. Maybe if he ate enough, his head would explode from brain-freeze. He refrained from buying twenty scoops of boysenberry flavour, however, because not only did he not have enough money, but he had a feeling the seeds would accumulate in his bowels and he would surely tonight, end up painfully- ah. Nevermind.

He jumped a little at the break of silence when Chanyeol spoke first.

“Hi.”

Baekhyun shoulders slumped at the boring word and narrowed his eyes grumpily at his one-scoop of Choco-Mint. Hadn’t they skipped the greetings and gone straight to the introductions? Definitely warped, Baekhyun considered.

“Hi…” He replied monotonously, then sighed. He was grumpy this morning. He didn’t even know why.

Wait. He did.

He begins with a K and ends with.... a very tragic death…

Despite his slight, yet growing, annoyance at Kai, he felt he should be giving Chanyeol a little bit more respect and attention than he was currently showing him. He felt a little guilty. “How are you?” he added quickly at the end, just so he felt a little better.

Chanyeol whistled, leading ahead, hands in his jean pockets.

 “I’m pretty good thanks, and you?”

“Good thank you.” He gave a simple reply, and just to make it so it didn’t seem like he was being rude, “And how are you?”

Wait. He’d already said that.

Chanyeol obviously noticed. He snorted quietly and his heels to face Baekhyun, who stopped abruptly before he ran into the taller one. He mimicked a little girl’s tone, obviously implying that Baekhyun was absolutely stupid or something, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes and grin.

 “I’m good! And how are you?”

Baekhyun felt like punching him.

And himself too for that matter.

Baekhyun wasn’t alone because he was awkward around people or anything. He was actually pretty smooth. He knew what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to. He just found people boring; they were all the same - cute, flirtatious, shy, too-outgoing…he knew all these types. It tired him. But Chanyeol…Chanyeol was something else.

He was a jerk.

He could tell. He’d only said a couple of sentences, but he knew that this was going to be a very, very, very crappy date.

Wait.

This was not a date.

“Sorry,” Baekhyun said quietly to Chanyeol while they were walking down a sandy-coloured pathway which lead to god-knows-where. Chanyeol had finished his mango ice-cream and started the stickiness from the tips of his fingers. He glanced sideways at Baekhyun but didn’t say a word. He raised his eyebrows though.

 “For calling you a jerk.” Baekhyun admitted hesitantly, but then slapped himself instantly when he realised that he actually hadn’t said it out loud. “Uh…because…uh my friend told me about you…uh…before you came here and I didn’t…um…think you sounded nice…and uh…”

Baekhyun.

Shut up.

Baekhyun let out a massive sigh, hung his head and slowly walked himself into the green lamp-post next to the drinking fountain. Clang. He backed away, and whacked his head into it again. Clang. And again. Clang. And again. Clang. Maybe if he walked into it enough times, he would get a lump which covered his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see that why is this guy such an idiot look etched permanently onto Chanyeol’s face.

Baekhyun stopped.

If Chanyeol was such a jerk, why was Baekhyun beating himself up (literally) for being so stupid infront of him? He shouldn’t care what Chanyeol thought. Chanyeol was going to be the same whether he was smooth or not. Chanyeol was going to fire those arrogant one liners at him left, right and centre whether he caught them, dodged them or ate them for breakfast. Chanyeol was going to…Chanyeol. That’s a nice name, Baekhyun thought.

No.

It was a stupid name.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

“If you’re finished having an embarrassingly stupid conversation with yourself…” He heard Chanyeol’s deep voice utter somewhere behind him.

Baekhyun swung around, a large red bruise forming on his forehead.

“We should continue walki-”

“I hate your name!”

Chanyeol blinked.

Silence.

Awkward.

Awkward Silence.

“Cool story bro.”

That’s it.

Chanyeol was a good name, Baekhyun decided.

To carve on a gravestone.