Chapter 2: Open Your Heart, Empty Your Mind
{Fantastic Baby, Big Bang}

Chanyeol is (most rudely) awakened at ten AM on Saturday morning with an incoming call from an unknown number.

“Hello?” He mumbles into his pillow, not even sure if the phone is remotely near his mouth.

“Are you still sleeping?” Baekhyun demands. Chanyeol almost cries.

“Whaaaat do you want? How did you find me?”

Baekhyun scoffs. “I got your number off of Jongdae. I’m on my break right now so I can’t talk for very long, meet me at the library in two hours, you got that?”

“Kittens on the deck,” Chanyeol sighs. “Library in two hours. I’ll get the sushi on my way back.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Baekhyun sighs.

Chanyeol reawakens one hour and twenty minutes later, yelps when he realizes what time it is and falls on his face when he tries to get out of bed, and almost runs out of the house with no shoes on. He’s grumpy when he gets to the library, but when he sees Baekhyun standing out on the steps waiting for him, he forgets all about how miffed he is at her. She’s wearing a pink turtleneck sweater, a white lacy skirt and she’s not wearing her hairband so her hair curls around her jaw. She’s also wearing the coolest shoes Chanyeol has ever seen—white sneakers with black stars all over them.

“Where’d you get those shoes?” Chanyeol blurts as soon as he gets close enough for her to hear him. Baekhyun smiles sweetly.

“Custom made,” she answers, turning her foot to show them off.

Chanyeol remembers to close his mouth. “Can I borrow them sometime?” He asks hopefully. She laughs and twirls away. Chanyeol now finds himself staring wistfully at her backpack, which looks like a panda bear.

“Yeah right, your huge feet will never fit in them,” she calls over her shoulder, holding the door open for him.

They find a table near a window (which Baekhyun sits next to, shoving Chanyeol out of the way to get it) and Chanyeol suddenly realizes he has no idea why he’s been called here. He’s about to ask when Baekhyun pulls their huge Calculus book out of her bag.

“So, I have no idea how to do this homework,” She informs Chanyeol, flipping through the pages. Her sleeves are so long that they cover her hands. “Explain it to me.”

Ah, so that’s what they’re here for.

Chanyeol pulls the book closer and Baekhyun leans over the table. She smells like coffee and it’s really overpowering and distracting.

“By any chance, do you work in a coffee shop?” Chanyeol asks casually.

Baekhyun smiles sheepishly. She never wears any makeup other than eyeliner, but Chanyeol wonders what kind of lip balm she uses to make her lips look that nice.

“My uncle owns it, I work there during the weekends,” Baekhyun says casually, and Chanyeol is briefly confused before he remembers they were having a conversation two seconds ago. He bends over the textbook again and points to a spot on the page.

“Okay, so here’s what you have to do when working on this kind of equation…”

Baekhyun is very impatient when it comes to learning, and she gets easily frustrated with herself when she makes a mistake.

“Aish,” she sighs, throwing her pencil down after only twenty minutes. Her hair is messed up from running her fingers through it and tugging on the ends. “I’m never going to understand it.” The softness of her tone only makes her sound sadder, and Chanyeol wishes she would yell.

Chanyeol calmly picks the pencil back up and hands it to her. “Yes you will,” he tells her. “But you can’t give up after only a little amount of time.”

He feels bad for her, because it seems like she’s near tears, so Chanyeol decides to use a different tactic to encourage her.

“Imagine Teacher Min’s face when she hands you back a test with an A on it,” he says, nudging her arm. Baekhyun immediately perks up and throws herself into the homework with new vigor. Four hours later she doesn’t exactly understand how to solve problems on her own, but when Chanyeol explains it to her she understands why it’s right, and that’s enough progress for him.

On the way out of library, Chanyeol leans over Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Why are people staring at us?” He whispers.

Baekhyun grins and pinches his cheek. “Probably because they’ve never seen someone as tall as you before.”

Baekhyun hands Chanyeol her test paper with a dejected look on her face. “I’m hopeless,” she tells him, her lower lip quivering. A big red “D” sits at the top of the paper.

Chanyeol snatches it out of her hand and scans though her answers. “You aren’t hopeless,” he tells her. She laughs and it sounds like she’s about to cry.

“Really, it’s okay, I’m used to it…”

“I mean it,” he says firmly. “You have the basic idea, but your methodology is a little off. Some of this is easy to fix, some of it may take some time but I can get you to a B by the end of the week, I promise.”

Baekhyun looks up at him from under her eyelashes. “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”

Chanyeol looks at her seriously. “I never say things I don’t mean. Come on, let’s get started.”

Chanyeol spends four days tutoring Baekhyun every spare moment they can find. Lunch, after school, Chanyeol even forces himself out of bed early to tutor Baekhyun before school. Apparently she arrives at 6 AM when her mom drops her off on her way to work and sits against the chain-link fence near the school yard until the custodians open the door.

“If I had to wake up at five to get ready for school every day I’d go crazy,” Chanyeol remarks on Friday morning at 6:45.

“Four,” Baekhyun corrects, gnawing on her fingernail. She catches Chanyeol’s incredulous look and points to her face.

“This eyeliner doesn’t fix itself,” She tells him, widening her eyes comically.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “You would look pretty even without it.” Then he smacks himself.

“I’m sorry!” He yells, “That sounded creepy didn’t it? I have this awful brain to mouth filter, I swear I don’t mean to sound half as creepy as I do.”

Baekhyun snorts. “Well it was pretty weird, I mean you should know someone longer than two weeks before you hit on them.”

Chanyeol knows he looks like he’s about to cry and Baekhyun’s eyes go even wider. “I was just kidding,” she says desperately. “Stop looking like that.”

“Why am I such an awkward cornflake?” Chanyeol whines as he hits his head on the fence.

Baekhyun laughs at that and Chanyeol has a faint glimmer of hope that he hasn’t ruined perhaps the nicest friendship he’s ever had.

“Hey, did I ruin your grade by any chance?” Baekhyun asks when she calms down.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “No, why?”

She twirls a piece of hair around her finger and looks at her feet. “When did you have time to study?”

Chanyeol laughs. “I haven’t studied for a test since middle school.”

Baekhyun gapes at him. “Why?”

“Well…” Chanyeol rubs the back of his neck and bites his lip. “I have a photographic memory and a really high IQ.”

When Baekhyun stares at him, Chanyeol decides to keep talking. “When I was in first grade my teacher thought I was slow, because I would always try to talk to the other kids instead of write letters and numbers. So my parents had me tested and they found out that I was at third grade level, probably even higher. You see, my sister is three years older than me and I used to watch her do her homework. She taught me how to recite the times tables when I was three, and I started to learn other things on my own. Anyway, I actually skipped to third grade for a day, but I spent the entire time crying. It was the worst day of my life, I was surrounded by all these older kids and they just kept staring at me…it was terrifying. The girls were really nice, one even showed me where the bathroom was. When my mom tried to take me back the next day I threw a tantrum—one of the only ones I ever had—and begged her to put me back in first grade. After that I did everything my teachers asked me to do, I tried not to show off in class and I spent all my free time stealing my sister’s textbooks so I could learn new things.”

There’s a few seconds of stunned silence. “Wow,” Baekhyun breathes. “That’s so cool.”

Chanyeol blushes and covers his face. “I don’t usually talk about it.”

“I can see why,” Baekhyun mutters. “I mean, it sounds like you had a pretty traumatic experience because of it.”

Chanyeol thinks for a moment. “Well yeah, but it’s who I am, right? I didn’t mind pretending to be on the same level as the other kids academically because I felt like I belonged with them socially. I just don’t like that sometimes when I tell people that, they assume that I know everything, which I don’t.”

“You told me,” Baekhyun points out. “How did you know I wouldn’t jump to conclusions?”

Chanyeol grins at her. “You watched me walk into our classroom door four times in the last week and you never once teased me for it.”

At the end of the day Baekhyun charges at Chanyeol and hugs him so hard she squeezes the air from his lungs.

“I passed,” she squeals happily. “I’ve never been so confident that I passed a test before in my entire life!” She pulls away and pats his cheek and pulls a kitten out of her pocket, holding it out to him. It’s black and white and the cutest thing he’s ever seen in his—

“So, go pick where you want to eat and meet me at the mall tomorrow at 1.”

Chanyeol blinks away his fantasies. “But you don’t know what grade you got yet.”

Baekhyun waves her hand. “I’d treat you to lunch even if I failed, although I better not after all that time you put in. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As she skips off, Chanyeol turns to Jongdae. “She’s something else,” he says dreamily.

Jongdae pats Chanyeol’s arm. “If you think she’s a handful, wait ‘til you meet her best friends.”

Chanyeol is on cloud nine, even with Jongdae’s warning about meeting potential crazy friends tomorrow. He shows up at the mall exactly on time, but when five minutes go by and nobody is meeting him, he starts to panic.

‘I got the wrong day?’ He wonders. ‘No, she said today…maybe the wrong time? Am I late???’

Just when Chanyeol is about to have a break down in the middle of the mall, he hears his name being called and has to stop himself from falling on his knees and crying with joy.

Baekhyun runs up to him and throws her arms around his waist. “Hi, how are you?” She doesn’t wait for an answer. “Come on, I want you to meet my best friends.”

She pulls Chanyeol down the walkway to where a few older kids are taking their sweet time walking over.

“This is Kris, Lu Han and Jessica. They go to college in the city, they’ve been my best friends forever.”

Jongdae snorts into his hot chocolate. “Yeah don’t mind me or anything.”

Chanyeol says hi to the college kids and ruffles Jongdae’s hair. “You can be my best friend if you want,” he says brightly.

Baekhyun taps her foot. “Can we hurry this up Jessica and I have bags to buy.”

Lu Han rolls his eyes and leans over to Chanyeol. “Don’t worry, they won’t take too long. They hate shopping.”

Chanyeol blinks. “I thought girls loved to shop.”

“Not when they’re hungry,” Jongdae laughs. Up ahead Baekhyun loops her arm with Kris’ and leans her head on his shoulder. Even though it’s Jessica Baekhyun is shopping with, she is inseparable from Kris as she browses the store shelves. Chanyeol feels like he’s swallowed a weight.

Lu Han spots him sulking and pats his shoulder. “They’re not dating or anything,” he whispers as Kris straightens Baekhyun’s shirt collar.

“I know,” Chanyeol says mournfully. “They don’t look at each other like that but…I wish I could have a friend like that. I wish Baekhyun could be that friend. I’m not jealous,” he adds quickly, “Just…a little lost I guess.”

Lu Han gives him an admiring look, which Chanyeol doesn’t feel like he deserves. Baekhyun finally settles on which wallet she wants (it matches her shoes apparently, though Chanyeol doesn’t see it) and they go to the food court to eat.

Baekhyun now latches on to Chanyeol and tries push him into buying something nice.

“I just want sushi,” he says weakly.

Baekhyun rolls her eyes and shakes his arm. “At least pick some nice sushi!” She pleads, “I’m paying you back for helping me!”

“I didn’t expect payment,” Chanyeol insists, but finally to placate her he orders a drink too.

“Ooh big spender,” Baekhyun scoffs, but she allows him to get away with it.

When they sit down, Baekhyun tells her friends about how Chanyeol has single handedly rescued her math grade.

“I can’t wait to see the look on my teacher’s face when she hands back my test,” Baekhyun squeals.

“This is the one that doesn’t like you, right?” Jessica asks. When Baekhyun nods, Kris grins evilly.

“Do you think you can get a picture of it?”

They all laugh and Chanyeol taps Baekhyun on the shoulder. “Why does she hate you so much anyway? She never calls on you or tries to help you at all.”

Baekhyun shrugs. “I guess she’s just jealous of my breathtaking good looks,” she sighs, flicking her hair back.

Jessica nudges Chanyeol. “So, where are you going to college?” She asks, effectively changing the subject.

Chanyeol shrugs. “I applied to whatever schools my mom showed me an application for. I don’t know what I’ll do though.” He lists a few schools and the older kids throw in their opinions, very soon getting loud on which school offers a better fine arts program. After a while Chanyeol catches onto the fact that they’re all roommates and almost chokes on his food.

“Your parents agreed to that??” He gasps.

 “Our parents don’t live in Korea, and we live off campus so it’s not like we’re breaking any school codes,” Kris explains.

“We actually have another roommate, but she had class today,” Jessica in forms him.

“And a stray bird that sometimes roosts in our house,” Lu Han mutters into his drink. Jongdae snorts so hard he makes himself choke.

“Well Jay does look like a bald eagle,” Jessica says thoughtfully.

“How do you know each other?” Chanyeol asks.

Jongdae suddenly gives Chanyeol a betrayed look. “Now you’ve done it…”

Chanyeol eventually works it out after an hour of the three of them arguing over each other, forgetting details and bursting into random thoughts. Kris knew Jessica because they went to the same summer camp, Kris knew Lu Han because their fathers were friends and later met Baekhyun in a Lee Hyori fan forum and Jessica met their other roommate in elementary school. He’s not sure where the goldfish fit in though.

“It was your own fault,” Kris insists.

Lu Han glowers. “You distracted me!”

“Who cares about the stinking fish,” Jessica shrieks, “Are we going to ignore the hole in the wall??”

Baekhyun is doubled over laughing and Jongdae is holding his head and muttering. Chanyeol is having the time of his life just watching them interact. Jessica repeatedly reaches over to pinch Kris’ arm or pull his hair, Lu Han keeps making faces behind Jessica’s back and if Chanyeol didn’t know differently. He’d think they were a bunch of bratty siblings.

“Oh!” Chanyeol cries as they are leaving the mall. “The wallet matches her school shoes! I get it now!”

Jongdae covers his face and sobs. “Why me?”

Poor Chen ^^