SORRY I KIND OF DISAPPEARED ON YOU!! I was away from internet for a few days but I'm back now!! Enjoy the chapter ^^

Chapter 4: A Love Prettier Than Memories
{Love Style, Boyfriend}

The more Chanyeol thinks about it, the less he finds he can continue to think of Baekhyun as a girl. When he meets Baekhyun outside of school the next day and confesses this, Baekhyun smiles.

“It’s okay,” he laughs. “Most people do the same. Jongdae’s pretty much the only one who fluctuates. Though my dad will call me girl when we’re in public…” he trails off, looking thoughtful.

Chanyeol thinks about keeping his mouth shut but the question seems to ask itself. “How did they…um…”

“Take it?” Baekhyun offers.

Chanyeol swallows. “I’m not trying to pry, really, I’m just…”

Again, Baekhyun laughs. “You are really sweet, I promise it’s fine. I expect you to be curious. My mom bought me the clothes but for a while she only let me wear them at home, it was only after I basically threw the biggest tantrum in my life that she agreed to let me cross dress in public. My dad…well honestly I think if I’d been the older son it would have been different.” Baekhyun is quiet for a second. “Of course by now it’s normal for them. For my whole family really. Now it’s my choice and I don’t need to ask for permission to wear what I want.”

Baekhyun laughs harder and pulls on Chanyeol’s sleeve. “I think my grandma actually thinks I’m a girl which, is really not funny because she’s got bad memory loss but at the same time it’s pretty hilarious.”

Chanyeol smiles because honestly, if Baekhyun can laugh then so can he.

Jongdae eyes the pair of them nervously when he walks into homeroom; it hadn’t occurred to Chanyeol that Baekhyun wouldn’t tell him what had transpired. Chanyeol offers him a reassuring smile and Jongdae visibly relaxes. At break when Baekhyun steps out to buy lunch, Jongdae interrogates Chanyeol.

“So you’re cool with her?” He demands, and Chanyeol nods enthusiastically.

“I think he’s amazing.”

Jongdae sighs in relief and slumps against his chair. “Thank you,” he says sincerely. “Baekhyun really likes you.”

“He invited me over to his house this afternoon,” Chanyeol tells him.

Jongdae grins and Chanyeol gets distracted again by how cat-like he looks. “I know why she asked you over.”

Chanyeol grabs him by his sweater and shakes him. “Tell me!” He commands, but Jongdae remains tightlipped.

Baekhyun skips slightly ahead of Chanyeol, who is stuck carrying his bag and Baekhyun’s books, which he claims won’t fit in his panda bag.

“Just down the block,” Baekhyun calls lightly. Chanyeol glares at him.

“You said that fifty blocks ago,” he whines, and Baekhyun scoffs.

“You baby,” he accuses, “We’ve only gone ten blocks. Look, we’re already here.”

Chanyeol looks up. Baekhyun is unlocking the door of a small house with a small flower garden in the front. It’s very cute looking, unlike the monster house Chanyeol lives in which is all harsh edges and glass. It’s supposed to be modern but Chanyeol just finds it cold.

Inside Baekhyun toes off his shoes and fairly tosses them into the closet. “Just throw yours in there,” he calls over his shoulder. “Do you want something to drink?”

“I’m okay,” Chanyeol calls back, and when he looks up again (still holding the bags) Baekhyun is standing in front of him holding two cans of Sprite.

“If you don’t drink it I will,” he says happily, cracking one open. He gestures to the couch.

“Leave the bags there and follow me.”

Chanyeol does as he’s told and trails after Baekhyun as they head to the back of the house, straight to a door with a large sign that reads “Baekhyun’s Personal Space” on it. All of a sudden Baekhyun stops and turns around, and Chanyeol teeters on his toes in an effort not to fall on him.

“You have to be very quiet,” Baekhyun warns in a hushed voice.

Chanyeol nods and holds a hand over his mouth. Baekhyun pushes the door open and Chanyeol gets a brief glimpse of what looks like a lot of visual kei bands before Baekhyun slaps his hand over Chanyeol’s eyes.

“Walk forward…turn around. Take two steps forward—stop! Okay, now kneel down.”

Baekhyun pulls his hand away and Chanyeol finds himself face to face with a row of skirt hems. Baekhyun points his head down and it’s all Chanyeol can do not to scream.

“Kittens,” he chokes before clamping his hand once more over his mouth. In a box in Baekhyun’s closet a cream colored cat is curled around five fluffy little kittens, all in varying shades of cream and black.

Baekhyun kneels down to scratch the mommy cat behind the ears. “She’s mine,” he says proudly. “She was pregnant when I adopted her, so I haven’t had her that long but she’s a sweetheart. Her name is Momo, she’s a—”

“Birman,” Chanyeol interrupts in a hushed voice.

Baekhyun smiles. “Yeah, but she’s got a little ordinary house cat in her too. She’s got the blue eyes though.”

Baekhyun then scoops up one of the cream colored kittens, who gives a sleepy mewl which makes Momo pick up her head. Baekhyun ignores her and holds the kitten out to Chanyeol.

“You can hold them if you want,” he says, practically shoving the little fluff ball into Chanyeol’s arms. “They need to get used to it.”

Chanyeol takes the kitten almost reverently and holds it to his chest. It snuggles into his school sweater and kneads the fabric, purring happily. Chanyeol feels like he could cry from how sweet it is.

“How old are they?”

“Eight days,” Baekhyun whispers. He picks up one of the black kittens and kisses it’s head. “Look at their paws, they’re so cute!”

Chanyeol does, brushing his finger tip over the little pink pads of the kitten’s feet. Everything about the little creature is adorably small; nose, whiskers, ears…it’s almost too much to handle.

“You’re so lucky,” Chanyeol whines. “I would give both my legs to have a box of kittens in my closet.”

“I can’t keep them,” Baekhyun sighs mournfully. “Well, I’m working on getting my parents to let me have one, but the others I need to find homes for.”

Chanyeol absentmindedly clutches the kitten a little tighter to his chest. “How sad for you,” he says tearfully.

Baekhyun scoots closer to the box and swaps the kitten he’s holding for another one. “Well I get to play with them for another seven weeks. That’s why I asked you over today, I need some help taking care of them. Will you…?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol blurts. “Absolutely.”

Baekhyun looks up and beams, and Chanyeol almost leans back because they are so close he can count Baekhyun’s eyelashes if he wanted to. Baekhyun has very long eyelashes, he notices.

Chanyeol starts noticing a lot of things about Baekhyun after that. He’s right handed but he fixes his hair with his left hand, he draws on his nails when he’s bored, he hums while he waits on line for food and his nose scrunches when he smiles, but only when he smiles at Chanyeol.

Chanyeol thinks it strange that he only started to pay attention to all this after he found out Baekhyun was a boy though. he wants to talk about it but he feels like it might not be a good thing to tell Baekhyun, and his parents haven’t met any of his friends yet, and Sehun disappeared again the day after the bag incident, so Chanyeol talks to Jongdae about it.

“Well, are you gay?”

And that is not what Chanyeol was expecting. “What would that have to do with anything?”

Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Well, if you like boys then it would make sense that after you found out Baekhyun was a boy you developed a crush on him.”

“Who said anything about a crush?!” Chanyeol yelps. “That’s quite a leap!”

“No it isn’t,” Jongdae sighs. “But answer the question—are you gay? Because Baekhyun is.”

“I-I…” Chanyeol stammers. “I don’t know?”

“Are you asking me, or telling me?”

“I don’t know if I’m asking or telling because I don’t know if I know that I’m gay, you know?!”

Jongdae blinks at him. “That’s just vague enough to make sense but…haven’t you ever had a crush on someone before?”

Chanyeol shakes his head. “I was never really interested in that stuff.”

Jongdae shrugs. “Well then I guess the best thing to do would be to ask Baekhyun out, spend a day with him and if you enjoy it then ask him out for real.”

Chanyeol gapes. “Is it really that simple?”

Jongdae laughs at him. “Baekhyun’s got enough on his mind without over complicating his romantic life. He’ll understand.”

The next time Chanyeol goes over to play with the kittens he invites Baekhyun to his house to try out his Wii U, which Baekhyun enthusiastically agrees to. Baekhyun winds up coming over every Saturday in the following weeks and manages to charm Chanyeol’s parents over dinner. They think Baekhyun is the politest human being on the planet. At the same time Baekhyun is kicking Chanyeol’s in Mario Kart.

“How are you so good at this?!” Chanyeol cries after week six of getting his keister whooped.

Baekhyun stops his victory dance long enough to smirk at Chanyeol. “My brother decided he needed to teach me a thing or two about video games when I was eleven. He’s got the high score in all the video games, so you could say I learned from the best.”

Chanyeol flops against his bed and sighs. “When I grow up I want to be as good as you.”

Baekhyun leans over him. “You’ll get there eventually,” he says cheerfully and ruffles Chanyeol’s hair.

The moment seems to freeze as Chanyeol closes his eyes and leans into Baekhyun’s hand, enjoying the light drag of Baekhyun’s fingertips on his scalp and the tug on the ends of his hair. Chanyeol thinks that he could get used to this, the physical closeness between himself and Baekhyun—he can smell the detergent on Baekhyun’s sweater—and the emotional connection as well. How is it possible for such a simple touch to send Chanyeol’s heart fluttering and bring a smile to his lips?

Baekhyun leaves his hand on Chanyeol’s head for just a second too long and when Chanyeol opens his eyes again, Baekhyun looks a bit flustered. When they resume the game, Chanyeol inches closer until their shoulders touch, and by the time Chanyeol’s mom is calling them down for dinner, Baekhyun is leaning his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder.

That could have been a distraction tactic though, because Chanyeol loses spectacularly thereafter.

In the following week Baekhyun manages to find homes for three out of his five kittens. He’s on his way to convincing his parents to let him keep one, but he needs to find a home for the fifth. The last kitten is a girl and has taken after her mother in coloring, but she has more dark brown than cream fur. She has the same blue eyes though—all the kittens inherited that. She’s a pretty little thing, but it seems nobody Baekhyun knows has room for her.

“I refuse to give her to a shelter,” Baekhyun vows at lunch one day, slamming his hand down on his desk. Chanyeol immediately holds his soda over his head so Baekhyun doesn’t knock it down.

Baekhyun turns to Jongdae. “Please, can’t you take her?” She begs.

“Don’t do this to me,” Jongdae chides. “You know I can’t. My mom’s cat is old and grumpy and hates other cats and it’s not fair to him because he was there first.”

Baekhyun slumps onto his desk. “Then there’s only one other option,” he says grimly, but he refuses to say what it is.

Surprisingly, Baekhyun asks Chanyeol if he can come over that night. Chanyeol agrees of course, though he’s confused as to why. Baekhyun never comes over on school nights.

Chanyeol’s mom is equally surprised to see Baekhyun, though she greets him warmly all the same.

“Is everything alright?” She asks, and Chanyeol is shocked to see Baekhyun’s eyes fill with tears.

“Well, not really…” he says, his voice shaking.

Mom’s eyes widen and she directs Baekhyun to a chair. “Chanyeol, be a dear and go make some hot chocolate,” she commands, and Chanyeol hastens to obey. By the time he gets back five minutes later though, Baekhyun is smiling through his tears.

“Thank you so much,” he sniffles. “I’ve been so worried, I just can’t imagine giving her to a shelter.”

“I understand,” mom soothes, Baekhyun’s hair. “It is very hard to say goodbye to a pet.”

Baekhyun wipes at his eyes and smiles up at Chanyeol as he places the hot chocolate on the table.

“Your mom said she would take the last kitten!” Baekhyun gushes. “Isn’t that great?”

It’s a good thing Chanyeol put the hot chocolate down, because he would have dropped it otherwise.

A few days later Chanyeol is watching his new kitten attack her toys with the ferocity of a small tiger. He’s named her Chaerin, which had Baekhyun laughing hysterically. His kitten is also a girl, but he named her Jongdae.

Human Jongdae was less than thrilled when he found that out, but Baekhyun insisted that Jongdae would look exactly like her if he was a kitten. To avoid confusion, Chanyeol suggested they call the kitten JD.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol have an agreement to bring their kittens together for play dates, and they have their first one tomorrow at Chanyeol’s house. Chanyeol’s heart rate increases every time he thinks about it, because he has something he wants to say to Baekhyun. First though, he needs to talk to his parents about it.

Chanyeol leaves Chaerin to her toys and goes downstairs. His parents are watching some kind of drama on TV, but when they see the look on his face they turn it off.

“What’s the matter?” Mom asks, sitting up. “You’ve got that look on your face.”

Chanyeol fidgets with his sleeves. “I’m not sure if you know this or not but…Baekhyun is a boy.”

Dad grins. “I knew it!” he crows triumphantly, turning to his wife. “And you say I’m oblivious.”

Mom rolls her eyes but smiles at Chanyeol. “We kind of guessed, dear. That and I met his mother last week at the supermarket. She’s a lovely woman, we should have the whole family over for dinner at some—”

Chanyeol cuts her off. “Okay but I want to ask him to date me.”

There’s a brief silence and Chanyeol suddenly feels his face heating up. “I mean, if that’s okay with you because you’re my parents and I value your opinions so if you don’t think, I mean…don’t agree or want—”

“Dearest,” mom interrupts. “You are rambling.”

Chanyeol swallows. “Yeah, so I am.”

She pats the couch cushion. “Come sit with your parents darling.”

Chanyeol shuffles over and perches on the edge of the cushion between them. Chanyeol is looking at his dad, who seems to be a bit teary eyed. He clears his throat and puts his hand on Chanyeol’s arm.

“Now listen,” he begins gruffly. “I can see that this has been weighing on you, and I just want you to know that your mom and I love you very much. Maybe we…maybe I don’t say it as often as I should but it’s true. Now who you want to date is your business, son. But for what it’s worth, Baekhyun is a good person and I have no doubt that he cares for you just as much as you care for him.”

Chanyeol sniffs and leans over, wrapping his arms around his dad’s shoulders. Dad chuckles and hugs Chanyeol tightly.

“You have good taste,” dad says.

“He gets it from your side of the family,” mom remarks lightly. “Because lord knows I have terrible taste in men.”

It takes a moment for dad to get it. “Now wait just a second!” He sputters, and Chanyeol falls off the couch from laughing so hard.

They are sitting on Chanyeol’s bed watching JD and Chaerin fight over a feather toy when Chanyeol confesses. Baekhyun just smiled at the kittens and Chanyeol felt his heart stop for how happy Baekhyun looked, and he wanted to see that smile directed at him, he wanted to be the reason for that smile.

“You have the most amazing smile,” Chanyeol blurts.

Baekhyun looks surprised but beams at Chanyeol. “Thank you,” he says lightly.

Chanyeol’s heart begins to pound and all he can think is ‘Oh God why did I start this while we were sitting on a bed this is going to be horribly awkward,’ but he can’t stop now, that would make him a quitter, so he continues.

“And um, I like your eyes and your laugh and all that…”

Baekhyun’s smile slips and he looks surprised, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so Chanyeol goes on.

“And I like your voice as odd as that may sound. Not when you’re talking softly although I like that too but I also like your real voice. And I think you’re really amazing and…” Chanyeol flounders for the words he wants. This was a lot more romantic in his head.

“Um…I…am really not good at this…”

Baekhyun scoots closer until their knees touch and he leans forward. “I like you too, Chanyeol.”

Then he just smiles and Chanyeol kind of wants to cry because it’s so sweet and understanding.

“I had more I wanted to say,” Chanyeol mumbles. “But I don’t know how to say it.”

Baekhyun reaches his hand out and hesitates for a half second before he puts it lightly on Chanyeol’s shoulder. “It’s okay,” he assures. “You’ll have time to tell me later.”

That’s what gets Chanyeol in the end. The promise of later—that there will be a later, there will be many laters, minutes and hours and days for Chanyeol to organize his thoughts and perfect what he wants to say because Baekhyun will be there to hear it.

“Is this the part where we kiss?”

Or Chanyeol could just continue to say whatever he wants no matter how weird it sounds.

Baekhyun laughs and smiles so that his nose scrunches. “Sure, why not?”

Baekhyun moves his hand to Chanyeol’s cheek as they both lean in. Baekhyun is the one who angles his head, Chanyeol just kind of inclines his neck. Chanyeol isn’t sure if he should keep his eyes open or close them, but once their lips touch they seem to close automatically.

It’s like in the dramas, where all they do is kind of smoosh their mouths together and just as Chanyeol is wondering if he should do something Baekhyun pulls away and gives him a quizzical look.

Chanyeol flails.

“I’m sorry that was awful wasn’t it that was my first kiss it was weird I was weird gosh flipping tables darn it I—”

Baekhyun leans forward again and seals his mouth firmly over Chanyeol’s. Chanyeol shuts his eyes again and lets Baekhyun guide him through the intricate workings of how lips move and how breathing works at a time like this. Baekhyun slides his fingers through Chanyeol’s hair and Chanyeol’s hands find Baekhyun’s waist and he grips the fabric of Baekhyun’s sweater just enough to ground himself in reality.

After a few moments Baekhyun pulls back a few inches and grins. “That was perfect.”

Chanyeol nods. “Yeah. When can we do it again?”

Baekhyun looks away. “As soon as we stop the kittens from tearing around the room.”

It appears that while they were distracted, the babies tore open the catnip pillow and made a mess of everything.

But once the kittens are taken care of, Baekhyun fairly tackles Chanyeol and kisses him for the next hour and twenty seven minutes. Not that Chanyeol was counting or anything.

I'm planning on doing a whole series in this verse, next up will be HunHan!!