As soon as Chanyeol promises to meet them

“Aren’t you glad we invited Mr. Park?” Kyungsoo asks and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Jongin grins at his boyfriend and wraps his arms around him mumbling incoherent words that make Kyungsoo blush.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and looks to Yixing for some help; the other boy just laughs and adds to their bullying. “Don’t look at me like that. Kyungsoo asked a legitimate question.”

“You guys are all useless. I don’t even understand why I’m still friends with you,” he huffs and glares at them all.

Sehun picks that moment to pay attention and says in a confident manner, “Because you love us!”

“No!”

“Yes you do!”

“Okay guys, leave him alone,” Junmyeon says, and Baekhyun wants to hug his friend, until he continues, “he’s already too jittery for tonight.”

“Ugh,” he sighs, “I’m going home. I’ll see you all at nine.” His friends snicker behind him and Baekhyun tries his hardest not to roll his eyes. He knows that in reality he is very nervous, in the last month, his feelings for Chanyeol only got stronger. It was hard not to fall for him when Chanyeol became even more amazing when he was open and friendly. He smiled at everything; he was always helpful and optimistic. He also, always listened, paying attention to the people around him.

Baekhyun feels nervous because he fears that he would slip tonight. Chanyeol didn’t know where they were going and if he knew he probably wouldn’t have agreed. Baekhyun knows that under the influence of alcohol, he tended to do say things without any brain-to-mouth filter.

He does not want to ruin everything they worked so hard for. Having Chanyeol as a friend was amazing by itself.

What if Chanyeol didn’t even want to come to his birthday? It was definitely possible that he only accepted because the boys were being insistent. Baekhyun had to do something about it.

---

Chanyeol couldn’t sit still. Every time he did, his body thrummed and his mind would wander. He sits down and berates himself for accepting their invitation. It is true that he is only a few years older, but this does not excuse a teacher from meeting up with his students after school.

If he was caught, Chanyeol knew that he would get into a lot of trouble. Not only that, but he knew why he did accept. The look Baekhyun had on his face when he rejected was too painful to look at. Chanyeol knows that he is the only reason that Chanyeol even contemplated going. The thought scares more than anything, because at that moment it wasn’t the thought of Kris that haunted him but the thought of Baekhyun.

Chanyeol was in too deep and all these emotions made him want to scream.

The only thing he could do, was keep himself busy until it was time to go. First, he starts to pick his outfit, and he realizes once again that he has no idea where they are going; and something tells him that he will not like it. He gives up on his outfit and instead decides to clean the house. In an hour, it is squeaky clean and Chanyeol throws himself onto the couch and tries to steady his breathing. Cleaning was definitely an exercise. His eyes linger on his phone, and he picks it up, he is shocked when there is an icon signifying that he has received two new messages.

From Kris:

Hey baby, I’ll be late tonight. I have a meeting I need to attend.

Chanyeol feels like he is suffocating, the first thought that runs through his head was that Kris was lying. That alone makes him feel like throwing up, he does not want to live the rest of his life like this. Always questioning Kris’ words, never believing him, it was so hard to trust him so easily again. He closes the message without replying, shutting his eyes until he does not feel so dizzy anymore. He looks down at his phone again and remembers the second message; he opens it tentatively.

From Baekhyun:

Hyung! I’m sorry they pressured you in