Chapter 12

Kris was feeling it again, that days barely went by and everything was cold and gray.

The time he spent with his Chinese and Korean friends was a good distraction but it didn’t always do the trick. On some occasions, Kyungsoo and Jongin’s cute bickering made him laugh earnestly. However, most of the time he only forced a vacant smile up his face and quickly looked away.

He tried to listen to Tao’s unbelievably long stories carefully, to take everything in and feel happy for the boy. But every once in a while, his mind drifted to memories of another person who liked to talk a lot and had curly brown hair that danced around his face and only called him Wu Fan when he had something important to say.

It was hopeless really, Wu Fan thought.

No matter how much he tried to act like everything was normal, at that moment he was standing in the middle of a crowded dance floor, pushed there by Tao and Luhan, and he was wearing something casual yet fashionable and he looked pretty stunning, if it wasn’t too presumptuous to say that for one’s self and still, he felt like a finished beer can thrown into the Han River; empty, unimportant and polluting everyone with his presence.

He had shouted at Chanyeol once, because the boy had said parties were no fun without Kris.

Now, the younger’s words were starting to ring true.

Somehow, lately, nothing was fun without Chanyeol.

“You’re not dancing.” Luhan nudged him in the ribs.

“I told you I’m not in the mood today. I’d rather go back.” The Canadian hissed back, trying to slowly move away from his clingy friend.

“But you promised we’d get to meet your Korean friends, remember? I’ve heard so much about them, so now I really want to meet them. You can’t leave!” The baby-faced guy whined next to Kris.

“You mean you really want to meet Sehun.” The taller of the two smirked and Luhan’s pout became more apparent.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He scoffed indignantly.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.” Wu Fan sniggered at his friend’s evident discomfort. It wasn’t often he got to see Luhan ashamed.

The blonde was in the middle of unsuccessfully trying to tune out Tao’s stylistic comments on pretty much every outfit in a three meter radius, when he saw Junmuyng walking in the club, followed by Kyungsoo and Eyeliner Baekhyun.

Kris waved their way, taking the chance to escape Luhan’s grip and impending questions about Sehun’s absence, and invited them over to their table.

“This guy is Luhan, then that’s Zitao or Tao, whichever suits you best, Chen, Xiumin and Yixing.” He pointed at the one side of the table, where the Chinese group was promptly seated.

“And this is Junmyung, Kyungsoo and Baekhyunnie. There are more in the group but they couldn’t make it today.” The Canadian introduced as each of the guys shook hands with the others.

“I’m not going to repeat the names, so in case you forget, or simply didn’t hear it the first time,” at that he gave a meaningful look at Xiumin, who was currently staring at a cute waitress as if she was Miss Korea and ignoring him, “just ask them yourselves.”

“If you don’t understand each other, tell Xuimin and Chen to translate, since they’re both exchange students from Korea.” He added looking at their perplexed faces.

He didn’t need to worry, though.

 In less than half an hour the two groups were communicating perfectly. With a mix of Korean, Mandarin and some good old body language, everyone had shared their age, job and favorite SNSD music video.

Actually, Baekhyun had just finished explaining to Tao why cute songs like ‘Gee’ fitted Tiffany’s image the best, when the Eyeliner Maniac decided to skip Junmyung’s monologue on Yoona’s acting skills and turn his attention to Wu Fan instead.

“Your friends are pretty cool.” He smiled a lopsided smile at the blonde who agreed that they were ok most of the time.

“I told him he was being a little too much, ignoring you for so long.” The eyeliner guy changed the subject suddenly, taking Kris by surprise.

“Chanyeol?” The blonde breathed out, slowly, the name that had been plaguing his thoughts lately.

“Of course, Chanyeol.” It had cost Wu Fan so much to say it out loud, yet Baekhyun brushed it off like it was no big deal.

“Anyway, I knew he liked you, but I had no idea it’d be that bad. I said it would be rude of him to bail out tonight that we’re meeting your Chinese friends. Then, I shouted at him and called him a spoilt cry-baby. I even abducted his PSP console!” Kris felt the need to cringe at that on behalf of the curly-haired boy.

“Long story short, he agreed to come by and say ‘hi’ sometime tonight.” Apparently, in Baekhyun’s language, ‘sometime tonight’ meant ‘oh look he’s here’ because seconds later, the Korean guy raised his hand and pointed at a familiar figure at the entrance of the club.

Chanyeol turned around and smiled at his friend.

The Canadian would swear he had never seen such a weak and fragile smile from the crazy boy. 

Usually, Chanyeol’s smiles were big and inevitably goofy, but they were glued on his face with one of those super strong, permanent glues that television advertisements claimed they can stick a person, upside-down, from the ceiling.

Now, the smile seemed carelessly fastened on the guy’s handsome face with cheap paperclips which can’t even stick papers together, let alone hold something as big as Chanyeol’s bright smile. It looked as if the slightest gust of wind could blow away that smile, like it would have blown away the papers put together with a paperclip.

Kris was about to stand up and face the younger guy, just to ask him to stop being so fragile and hurt when being in love with a bastard like him wasn’t even worth it, but something stopped him.

At that moment he noticed that Chanyeol hadn’t come alone to ‘say hi’, as Baekhyun had put it. A group of people, who Wu Fan recognized as classmates, were standing behind him, trying desperately to impress the boy with well-rehearsed stories about their stupid, rich lives. About the number of cars they owned and the importance of going to Bahamas every summer. It was funny how many gadgets money could buy to replace a barely functioning brain.

Kris sounded bitter even to himself.

He knew he had no reason to take out his anger on them, since they hadn’t done anything bad enough to be worthy of such rude comments. Nevertheless, in that pathetic mess that was his nervous system at the moment, there was no room for kind and sensible thinking.

In all honesty, instead of those classmates, there could be Confucius and Marie Curie standing next to Chanyeol, telling him stories about how they made the world a better place, and Kris would still come up with something bad to say about them.

However, the highlight for the Canadian, in a strictly sarcastic sense, was when the curly-haired guy replied to their questions politely.

Wu Fan felt his blood pressure rising dangerously.

“That tall guy with the curly hair, is he a friend of yours?” Yixing asked from across the table, making the blonde flinch.

“He is. Why?” Kris furrowed his eyebrows.

“You were staring at those guys talking to him with a furious look, as if they just kidnapped a baby from its crib and asked you to find their real name if you wanted to get it back.” Not one of Yixing’s best jokes, yet the Canadian got the point.

“The name’s Rumpelstiltskin. And I’m not angry at them, don’t misunderstand.” He lied through his teeth.

“Oh come on!” The falsely vacant-looking guy rolled his eyes. “Just because I haven’t seen your ‘jealous face’ since Luhan won that trip to CERN instead of you, back in middle school, it doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten how it looks.”

Kris briefly wondered if he really had a ‘jealous face’ but soon he brushed it off. As long as Yixing could recognize it, it probably meant he did have one.

 “What’s his name?” His friend continued with the questions.

“Park Chanyeol.” He repeated the same name that gave his mouth a sweet taste of white chocolate and bubble tea.

“It fits him.” The Chinese guy commented taking a better look at the tall boy still talking to the rich classmates.

“It does.” Wu Fan nodded.

It did.

It fitted the boy perfectly.

Since the first day they met the blonde thought this name was made for him. And if you said it slowly, it filled your mouth and went down your esophagus and before you knew it, little fireworks would be erupting inside your chest and you’d get goosebumps all over your body.

Park. Chan. Yeol.

Simply whispering it unsettled Kris but also made him feel a little warmer.

Almost like he had the boy sitting next to him all along.

Yixing cleared his throat as loudly as possible, while he managed a heavy kick inches under the Canadian’s knee.

It took Wu Fan a few moments to make sure he could still use his leg, but, after that, he started taking in the situation.

Park Chanyeol, who had a name fitting for his personality, Eyeliner Baekhyun and some other classmates were standing over him staring expectantly over his shoulder at the Chinese strangers.

They were probably waiting for him to introduce them. The blonde registered it, but was unable to actually do so.

Not his fault, really, since Chanyeol had been standing too close and looking too intently at him.

“Hi!” The cause of Wu Fan’s aforementioned discomfort took a step forward and waved at the five foreigners.

“My name is Park Chanyeol. Nice to meet you!” He said slowly in slightly accented Mandarin.

“Hello. You don’t have to speak Mandarin with me. Minseok-hyung and I are Korean.” Chen shook the hand that the curly-haired Korean had extended and replied in Korean.

“Exactly. Nice to meet you!” Xuimin smiled cutely at the tall boy.

“I’m Tao. Nice to meet you, oppa.” Zitao said timidly in broken Korean, causing everyone to laugh.

“Yah! Hwang Zitao how many times do I have to tell you, this is what girls say!” Xiumin smacked the back of the boy’s head. “For you it’s hyung. Hyung!”

“Xuimin gē! Hitting me won’t improve my Korean.” The martial arts’ prodigy protested rubbing his neck.

Kris relaxed a little on his seat as he saw a warm smile settling on Chanyeol’s face while he watched the two boys bickering.

“You’re the guy who stayed with Wu Fan in the hospital when he was hurt, right?” Luhan asked casually, but the blonde saw him observing Chanyeol closely.

“I’m the one who caused him to be hurt in the first place, so…” The younger boy blushed and bit his lower lip.

“Thank you for always taking care of our Wu Fan.” Luhan bowed formally, without suspecting that he was making the other guy even more uncomfortable with his serious manner.

“N-no… I’m just a bother to Duizhang. It is I who should be thankful…” Chanyeol bowed as well, in that awkward way that he did almost everything.

“Duizhang?” Tao put in curiously. “Who’s Duizhang?”

Thankfully, that innocent question made things a little less stiff.

The curly-haired guy began narrating his story about how he ended up calling Kris ‘Duizhang’ and everyone agreed that it was a pretty good nickname.

“My name’s Zhang Yixing.” Yixing was the last to introduce himself. He spoke in Korean and gave Chanyeol what Wu Fan referred to as his trademark ‘prissy smile’ and invited the Korean guy to sit next to him.

“Luhan, Wu Fan and I are childhood friends. You know, because Wu Fan used to live in Shanghai until middle school.” The Chinese guy explained and the younger boy looked at the three of them surprised.

Kris could tell he was dying to ask more, but he had wanted to keep a distance from the blonde, so he didn’t.

“Oh... right.” Was all he said in a soft voice.

“To tell you the truth I don’t even know how I came out so normal after all this time I’ve spent with the two of them.” Yixing shook his head in painful regret at the supposed hardships he’d gone through, while the other two scoffed.

Chanyeol smiled politely.

 “One of them is a workaholic with delusions of grandeur and the other a baby-faced . I cannot even begin to describe how hard it is to look after them.” Apparently, Zhang Yixing had missed the thousands of glares his two childhood friends were throwing his way, since he continued talking animatedly and the curly-haired Korean hid a chuckle behind his hand.

“I don’t have delusions of grandeur.” Wu Fan objected.

“That’s exactly what delusional people say.” Luhan sing-songed from the corner. “But, more importantly, how am I a ? I haven’t dated anyone for a whole year.” He added.

“You’re going through a… how do you say it in Korean? That thing where you fall…” Zitao scratched his head thoughtfully.

 “A slump. It’s called ‘going through a slump’.” Xiumin provided.

“Right! Luhan gē is going through a slump. And, by extend, so am I.” Tao announced dramatically, probably thinking of his ‘late-night female visitors’ leaving angry and disappointed because of Luhan’s annoying behavior, which, according to Zitao, was a result of his singleness.

“I was never a !” Luhan insisted, his cute face grimacing and looking, unfortunately for him, even cuter.

“Yes. Yes, you were...” Kris still had the mental scars from spending half of his highschool holidays in Shangai, fending off Luhan’s numerous crazy and jealous ex-boyfriends.

“Hahaha. Do you remember when we pretended to be Luhan’s boyfriends to scare away the guys that followed him around?” Xiumin laughed.

“So you met up with Luhan-sshi’s previous love interests and said you were his boyfriends in order to keep them away? Wow! And did they take it well?” Junmyung asked curiously.

“I got beaten up once by guy from the boxing club.” Chen said dejectedly.

“Of course you did, since you were the good-looking new boyfriend. I always said I was rich and I’d sue them if they hit me.” Xiumin winked playfully.

“I mailed them a ‘couple’s photo’ of me and Luhan with a little note saying that we’re dating. So, I didn’t even get to meet them, let alone get beaten.” Yixing explained in a self-satisfied tone.

“The best one at that job was Wu Fan, though.” Luhan said loudly, patting the blonde’s back proudly.

 “You see, not only did he take them off my back, he also made them forget about me completely.” Looking at everyone’s interested expressions the cute guy paused for tension.

“Every single guy who saw him, immediately asked for his number. ‘I don’t mind about that cheating bastard, Luhan. Are you single?’ That’s what they said. He drives them crazy, I swear!” The Canadian crossed his arms in front of his chest at the other’s words.  It wasn’t as nice an experience as Luhan seemed to think. Kris even had to change his number to stop receiving strange, erted calls.

“Hm… Yeah, Duizhang has that effect on people.” Eyeliner Baekhyun smirked and said something to Chanyeol that made him blush profoundly.

“I guess you’re right. He’s got a nice body, good head, well… bearable character… He’s almost perfect.” Luhan nodded reassuringly.

“That’s why I keep telling him to stop being so prude, like he’s sworn to celibacy or something, and date someone from these hordes of guys that are crushing on him.” The cute-faced, not particularly innocent guy, finished his speech triumphantly and the Chinese group, minus Wu Fan, laughed and applauded.

The Koreans, however, seemed more surprised than amused and Kris knew exactly why.

“Wait, you mean Duizhang-hyung is into guys?” Kyungsoo asked, his eyebrows furrowed pensively.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Aigoo, Wu Fan gē is always so secretive. I remember one time…” Chen was feeling talkative for once, so he began recounting the story which had been known among the group as ‘The time Wu Fan made us lose truth or dare because he refused to say if he watches ’ also known as ‘The fiasco’.

Yet, Wu Fan was no longer listening.

His eyes were pinned on the stormy face of a curly-haired, crazy guy, who seemed ready to burst in flames from anger. It might have been just the blonde’s overactive imagination, or maybe Chanyeol had had some extra hot chili peppers for dinner; still Kris couldn’t ignore that pressure in his gut that told him, correctly or not, that something was making the younger boy upset.

He decided to go for it. To find out if his intuition was right or not.

He stood up and towered over Chanyeol, ignoring the curious looks he was getting from everyone around them.

The younger boy slowly raised his eyes after ten second, eyeing him dizzily, his cheeks still burning red.

 “Come outside with me for a second?” The Canadian said in a gentle request.

Somehow, Chanyeol didn’t refuse and slowly rose from his seat.

As soon as the cold winter wind hit Wu Fan’s face he felt better; calmer and less unsettled.

“Are you ok?” He asked the boy who had been staring anywhere but his face.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Chanyeol retorted. Then, as if regretting his aggressive tone he bit his lower lip and sighed. “I’m okay. Just a bit shocked.” He tried again, more restrained.

“Because of what Luhan said?” Kris felt his heartbeat quicken again. Nowadays, when he was with the curly-haired boy, his heart was racing more often than not.

Chanyeol admitted that it was because of that.

“I-I was stupid.” He mumbled. “All this time I thought you were straight. And it felt a little better, knowing that I never stood a chance. Because, at least it wasn’t my fault.” The younger guy’s chest heaved up and down in an agonizingly monotonous rhythm.

“I thought you turned me down because you couldn’t see me like that. Because you didn’t like guys, like that. But, it’s just me you don’t like. Because I’m… me. I realized that and now… now it’s a little painful.” Chanyeol pursed his lips together and gave Wu Fan a weak look.

“What do you mean, Chanyeol-ah?” He was getting confused.

“You turned me down, not because I was the wrong gender, but because I was the wrong person. Because I wasn’t good enough and… and this hurts a little more.” The Korean guy raised his voice again, anxiously and passionately, before letting it fall desperately at the last part.

That’s when Wu Fan understood what it was all about.

Chanyeol hadn’t been mad about Luhan’s ex-boyfriends asking him out. No. That crazy guy wasn’t the sort of person who would show anger and bitterness about something like that. He hadn’t been upset about finding out Kris was gay in such a way, either.

As always, the curly-haired guy had only been mad about the things which, according to his twisted logic, he had done wrong. Once again, he was putting all the blame on himself.

The blonde thought it was so stupid, he suddenly felt like laughing. Or screaming.

How on earth could Park Chanyeol think that he wasn’t good enough? That Kris had turned him down because he lacked somewhere… That it was his fault…

Bull.

This crazy guy in front of him was the brightest, most handsome and nicest person Wu Fan had met in his life.

And his head hurt from thinking of him too much. His heart was going berserk in his chest every time he saw his perfect smile and he shivered at the boy’s hot touch.

He was so in love that he could no longer tell right from wrong.  He was so wrapped around the boy’s finger that he was going crazy. So desperate to see him that he went back on his word.

How could Park Chanyeol think he wasn’t good enough?

“Duizhang are you alright?” The blonde saw a hand waving in front of his face.

“You shouldn’t say things like that.” Kris muttered angrily. “If you do, then people will really think you’re stupid.”

“What?!” The curly-haired boy titled his head to the right, confused.

“You’re a great guy, can’t you see it? Whoever you end up dating will be so happy that he’ll probably go crazy.” The older guy said loudly, feeling the blood pumping in his veins.

“But you can’t be that person.” It was more of a statement than a question, yet Kris felt the need to reply, that no, he couldn’t.

“I’m not right for you. I’m the wrong person here. I can’t explain why, but that’s how it is.” He looked at his feet.

“Just ignore me, till you get over it. Okay?” It was the last thing he wanted to say. Still, he ended up saying it. Because that was what Chanyeol had to do.

The boy did not speak again.

He just nodded a couple of times. Then, he turned around and left, like he did so often lately. He was making a habit of it, Wu Fan thought bitterly, but made no move to hold him back.

Kris was making a habit of it too; not holding Chanyeol back that is.

A/N: Super fast update ... YAY!!!

Well, I'll admit nothing much happened in this chapter, but bear with me!!!

Soon, I'll give you LOTS AND LOTS OF KRISYOL ACTION (No, not M Rated action - sorry)

How about cute, fluffy and hot action? Would that be good?

I'll do that in a few chapters...

Thanks for everything. 

I really super love you all~

PS: It's late, ok? I don't even know what this A/N is all about...