Light ‘em up

Kris has a secret that he doesn’t want anyone to know.

He wants to kiss Byun Baekhyun. He likes Byun Baekhyun.

But he knows he can’t kiss him so what he does is watch him instead. It’s something that he does in the times when EXO-M is in Korea, during minutes or seconds when they’re not pushed to learn new choreography or to smile for the fans.  He tries to do it as inconspicuously as he can because if anyone realizes what he’s doing, he’s going to be in pretty big trouble.

Lu Han slides onto the seat next to him and Kris jumps, making Lu Han laugh.

“Why so jumpy, duizhang?” Lu Han asks, a small smirk on his mouth. Kris opens his mouth to answer, but apparently Lu Han isn’t done talking. “Am I disturbing your favorite pastime?”

“My what?” Kris coughs.

“Your favorite pastime,” Lu Han repeats, blinking innocently. “You know, watching Baekhyu—“

Kris slams his big hand over Lu Han’s mouth. He looks around to see if anyone’s heard, but Tao is still ridiculously focused on Joonmyun, who is telling him all about golf, which is something that Kris will never ever find interesting. Chanyeol, meanwhile, is bugging Kyungsoo, who is trying to make enough food for 12 (“more like 24,” Jongdae quips) boys. The rest are scattered here and there with Sehun and Jongin leading the racket that they also call ‘playing video games’. And Baekhyun… Baekhyun is still hunched by himself on the sofa, tinkering with his mobile phone.

“What are you talking about?” Kris hisses. He glares at him in the best dragon leader impersonation that he can. He wilts when Lu Han laughs, rather mockingly, too.

“You’re not really scary, you know that, right?” Lu Han slaps Kris’s hand off his mouth. “I mean, you can be pretty scary when you dance, but that’s not the point here.”

Kris merely stares at Lu Han, trying very hard to not let the insult get to him. If he let everything that came out of Lu Han’s mouth get to him, he’s pretty sure everyone would be wondering where Lu Han was because Kris would probably have thrown him in a ditch somewhere.

“The point is,” Lu Han continues cheerfully and gestures emphatically towards the couch, “Baekhyun.” Kris raises his hand to cover Lu Han’s mouth once again, but Lu Han puts his hands up in surrender, his eyes dancing merrily. “Okay, okay. I get it. You’re trying to be discreet.”

Kris tries to go for naivety. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Lu Han in a sharp breath. “Don’t ever do that again, Yifan,” he seriously states, shaking his head as if he’s witnessed a tragedy. Then he looks up and smiles brightly at him. “Lying is not a good look on you.”

Kris groans and buries his face in his large hands. “So what are you going to do about it?” he asks, finally gathering the courage to admit it to the nosiest EXO member—person?—on the planet. “Are you going to tell him?”

Like he said. Trouble.

Kris glances at Baekhyun. A fond smile makes its way to his face because Baekhyun is frowning rather adorably at his phone. Somehow, everything that Baekhyun does, no matter whether he’s performing or singing or laughing or smiling or just sitting down and staring into space ends up really cute. It’s during these times that Kris really wants to wrap him in a tight hug and squish him. Okay, so he wants to squish Baekhyun all the time. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

“Oh my god, you’re so done for.” Lu Han is looking at him in surprise and wonder. “Are you for real?”

“I—yes?” Kris stutters, caught off guard. “I mean—no, it’s just—what I’m trying to say is—“

“Why don’t you just do something about it?” Lu Han suggests like it’s the easiest thing to do.

Kris’s eyes find their way to Baekhyun again and he wonders. Things have always comfortable between them. All their conversations are interesting and effortless. He likes how Baekhyun manages to find time in between hanging out with Chanyeol and Tao to talk to him, especially when they’re together as EXO. Kris thinks about the small touches, Baekhyun’s hand on his arm, a smile here and there, the way Baekhyun seeks him out and chooses to stand or sit next to him. It screams too much of friendzone that Kris doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it.

“We’re okay like this,” Kris firmly assures Lu Han. It’s an assurance to himself, too. “Besides, if things become awkward because I confessed and he doesn’t feel the same way then that’s just going to be trouble for all of us.”

Lu Han rolls his eyes and stands up. “You think too much about other people. Sometimes it’s okay to think about yourself, too.” He makes a face at him and skips away to crash into the space between Sehun and Jongin.

Lu Han is right. He thinks about other people too much. But EXO isn’t just other people to him. They’ve become his family and he thinks that if he caused anything to jeopardize their easy relationship then he’ll never forgive himself.

Letting out a breath, he gets up and walks to the kitchen to pull Chanyeol away from Kyungsoo, who is brandishing a pan so Chanyeol would stay back.

-

Kris decides that he has to do something about his Baekhyun thing. It’s gotten to the point where he sees Baekhyun everywhere, even in his dreams. At least he can control how he sees Baekhyun in real life, all cute and fluffy, but in dreams, that’s where the real trouble is.

It’s not that he minds dreaming about Baekhyun. It was actually quite a pleasant experience when it first happened. Baekhyun had suddenly called him, lifting his face up towards him and kissing him. But then the dreams started progressing to more…uncomfortable things that Kris thinks it’s time to put an end to it. He can’t go around sporting inadvertent boners around the members, most especially not around Baekhyun.

“Hyung,” Baekhyun reaches for his arm, the way he always does when they’re walking down the airport. “Look at this.”

Kris, the helpless, spineless thing that he becomes when Baekhyun is around, looks at the phone towards his face. He frowns. “It’s Line? What about it?”

“I just had it installed on my phone!” Baekhyun excitedly shares. “I’ve been having problems with my Kakaotalk and Lu Han hyung told me that Line is a much better messaging app.”

“Oh okay,” Kris says, pulling his own phone out. “What’s your account name? Let me add you.”

Baekhyun’s eyes light up and Kris averts his gaze to stop himself from kissing him right then and there. They exchange account names and Baekhyun’s positively bouncing until they reach the lounge area.

“Let’s message each other!” Baekhyun happily suggests as they sit down across Jongin and Jongdae, who are watching them curiously. “Have you seen the stickers? They’re so cute! Kakaotalk doesn’t have that.”

Kris clears his throat uneasily when he realizes that a couple of the other members have started watching them because Baekhyun excited is easily one of the most entertaining things. “Actually,” he says, “there’s something I have to discuss with manager-hyung.” He immediately feels bad at the disappointed look in Baekhyun’s eyes. “You can still message me?” he offers. He chuckles at Baekhyun agreeing to this and pats Baekhyun’s shoulder before he leaves.

He walks over to their manager and vaguely notices Lu Han claiming the seat he’s just vacated.

-

There are many things that Kris hates. But one of the things he hates the most is getting woken up in the middle of his beauty sleep. Do people think that getting and maintaining the skin that he has is easy? No. It requires countless applications of beauty products with a prescribed regimen and at least 10 hours of sleep (not that he’s gotten 10 hours of sleep since being in SME).

His sleep is very important and he’s sure that he’s instructed each of the members, in their weekly one-on-one talks, that he is never ever to be disturbed when he’s in dreamland. Not through knocking on his door, not by schedules, not by food, and most especially not by phone.

His phone beeps for what feels like the 20^th time that evening. Gritting his teeth, he grabs it, fighting the urge to throw it against a wall. If this isn’t a life and death situation, he’s pretty sure he’ll throw a fit. In the most graceful manner, of course. He has an image to uphold. He sighs and sits up as he unlocks his phone. The drowsiness starts wearing off when he sees that Baekhyun’s the one who’s been disturbing him with countless Line messages. Since he’s already awake, he decides he might as well read them.

Breath is knocked out of him as he sits up and chokes once he sees the messages.

Byun Baek

He closes his eyes and opens them again. He really isn’t seeing things.

Baekhyun really did send him the sticker. A ton of them. A delicious shiver runs through him at the possibility that—he shakes those thoughts away from his head because he’s not going to abuse Baekhyun’s trust like that. If Baekhyun ever liked him that way, he’s pretty sure that Baekhyun would say something because Baekhyun is always open and straightforward about things.

Hands slightly shaking, he replies. Baekhyun, what are you doing?

Baekhyun’s reply is quick.

Byun Baek

Hi duizhang!

It’s cute right!

It’s something that I can’t do in real life so I might as well get to do it on Line. ^^

Uh, you should stop sending me that, Kris replies, while trying not to die.

Byun Baek

But this is so fun!!

Kris turns off his phone and buries himself under the covers. What could he have done to deserve this?

-

Lu Han is on his way to the K dorm when Kris grabs his arm and locks both of them in one of the administrative closets of the building, which basically means that they’re in a janitor’s closet.

“Duizhang, I know I’m attractive but you can’t just grab me and lock me in closets to molest me,” Lu Han speaks up in the dark.

“Molest you—what! Shut up,” Kris growls, fumbling for the light switch.

“So what are we doing here then?” Lu Han asks when they’re both bathed in yellow light by a small bulb that’s hitting Kris on the forehead. Kris rubs his eyebrows and massages his temple. “Okay, you’re slightly worrying me,” Lu Han says in a gentler voice because Kris only ever does that when he’s truly bothered about something.

Kris sighs and takes his phone out of his pocket. He tinkers with it for a bit before shoving it in front of Lu Han’s face. “Baekhyun’s been sending me this,” he struggles to get the words out because he can’t believe he’s telling Lu Han this of all people. But then again, it’s either Lu Han or Yixing. Yixing would only stare blankly at him and tell him to go for it, even if there’s really nothing to go for.

Lu Han grabs his phone and guffaws, practically falling to the floor in intense amusement. “This is great, duizhang!” He gives Kris’ phone back to him, still laughing. “I taught him that!”

Kris freezes. “What—you—?”

“It’s fun!” Lu Han tells him happily. “He was trying to get used to the app so I taught him a couple of things!” He pats Kris on the shoulder. “It’s very effective aphrodisiac. That sticker has a success rate of 90%. The nine out of 10 times that I’ve sent that to Sehun, we’ve ended up in bed with really hot . It’s effective for long distance relationship y times, too. Sehun is easily aroused so—”

“Stop talking,” Kris interrupts. “Oh my god, why am I in EXO with you,” he then groans into his hands. “Why do I know you!”

Lu Han looks greatly offended. “Hey, this type of information is gold. I don’t just tell anyone this—well, I did tell Jongdae about it since—“

“I really don’t want to know,” Kris pleads, lifting his face up. “Just please make Baekhyun stop sending it to me.”

-

Baekhyun really likes the Line application. He thinks it’s a really effective way to communicate, especially to the EXO-M members who are normally promoting so far away in China. It also helps that Girls’ Generation endorses it. It makes him happy to know that he’s using something that his favorite sunbaes also use. He also really likes how he can show his emotions through the stickers.

Like right now. He’s really annoyed with Tao because, instead of talking to Baekhyun like he’d promised he would, he’s cuddling with Joonmyun instead. It’s an irrational anger because he knows that Tao and Joonmyun missed each other and is just trying to catch up on time but he doesn’t care. A promise is a promise.

So he sends Tao a sticker on Line to show him how he feels.

Tao looks up from his phone and at Baekhyun with a furrowed brow when he receives the message. He excuses himself from Joonmyun and takes a seat beside Baekhyun.

“Just what exactly are you trying to tell me with that sticker?” Tao asks.

Baekhyun crosses his arms on his chest. “That I hate you,” he explains.

Tao raises his eyebrows. “Pretty sure you don’t give head to people you hate,” he carefully says.

Baekhyun stiffens and looks at him with wide eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“That sticker you sent…” Tao prompts him. When Baekhyun continues giving him a blank look, he practically chokes in surprise. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what that sticker means.”

“It’s a cute bear kneeing a cute bunny?” Baekhyun states. Tao stares at him. “If you’re confused, I’m the bear and you’re the bunny,” he elaborates. “I’m kneeing you on the stomach.”

“Oh my god,” Tao exclaims, facepalming. “I can’t believe you don’t—I’ve got to tell duizhang this. He’ll think it’s—“

“I’ve been sending it to duizhang, though?” Baekhyun interrupts him uncertainly, confused about what the big deal is.

Tao’s wide eyes rival that of Kyungsoo’s when he’s in complete shock. “What did he do?”

“Nothing,” Baekhyun answers with a shrug. “What’s the big deal? Is it bad to want to express my feelings on Line?”

Tao comes down from his shock and frowns. “So are you saying you hate Kris hyung?”

“No, of course not!” Baekhyun immediately corrects. There’s a red tinge on his cheeks as he explains himself. “I don’t hate him.” He frowns and plays with the hem of his shirt. “I just thought it was really cute and wanted to send it to him.”

Tao rubs his face, muttering something like this is not what I signed up for. “Kris hyung really didn’t do anything? He didn’t say anything?”

“Was he supposed to?” Baekhyun asks.

Tao sighs as he pats him on the knee and leaves him there. “I don’t get paid enough for this,” he mutters to himself.

-

There’s nothing as satisfying as knowing the fact that his bed is waiting to cuddle him when he finishes his schedules. Kris just finished showering and doing his beauty regimen and all he wants to do is crawl into bed and get that much needed sleep. But when he walks into the room, he finds Tao sitting on his bed, looking stern.

“What’s wrong?” Kris slowly asks as he shuts the door behind him.

Tao fumbles with his phone and shoves it into Kris’s hands. “Baekhyun has been sending this to you all this time and you didn’t even tell him what it means!” he rants. “The poor dear thinks it’s cute! CUTE!”

Kris stares at the sticker on Tao’s Line chat room with Baekhyun. At first, all he can think of is that Tao is right. He really should have said something because if Baekhyun finds out later on, Baekhyun will be incredibly embarrassed and he doesn’t want that no matter how cute Kris thinks Baekhyun is when embarrassed.

And then he realizes that Baekhyun’s sent it to Tao.

“Oh god,” Kris looks up at Tao. “He’s been sending it to other people, too?”

“What do you think?” Tao snaps.

“I thought he was only sending it to me,” Kris frowns. “I thought I was special and—“

“HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!” Tao is hysterical at this point and Kris takes a step back. “HOW CAN YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF SPECIAL! HE THINKS IT’S A BEAR KNEEING A BUNNY!”

“Tao,” is all Kris says before Tao is calming down.

“Sorry,” Tao takes a deep breath. “Sorry, hyung.” After a couple of seconds, he looks at Kris again. “Hyung, it’s your responsibility to explain this to Baekhyun.”

“But—how!” Kris is startled. How can he even begin to tell him that the sticker that he thinks is cute and a hate message is actually a ual one?

“That’s your problem, not mine,” Tao pats him on the shoulder consolingly.

“Hey, if he’s sent it to everyone else, it’s all of our problems,” Kris counters. He frowns at the thought that Baekhyun’s been giving everyone s through Line. He has to have a word with the members about this.

“So if, say, Sehun decides to show Baekhyun what it means…” Tao suggests, smirking, knowing that Kris will get upset about it.

“I will murder that kid,” Kris declares. “He already gets too much from Lu Han!” He sighs defeated, knowing he would have to talk to Baekhyun sooner or later. “You know, Lu Han was the one who showed Baekhyun that sticker.”

Tao laughs. “Why am I not surprised? Of course, it’s Lu Han hyung. Ooh!” he starts happily. “Maybe Lu Han hyung and Sehun will do a show for him to demonstrate that sticker.”

“I changed my mind,” Kris states seriously. “I won’t murder Sehun. I’ll kill Lu Han instead.”

“Good luck,” Tao grins at him. He then plays with his phone and accidentally sends a Line message to Kris.

Kris picks up his phone and absently sends back the same message.

Kris and Tao then look at each other.

“Did we just give each other s?” Tao asks nervously.

Kris shoves Tao out of his room.

-

Kris and Baekhyun don’t talk to each other for the next couple of days. Right after Tao confronted him about the sticker, he figured that it was best that he and Baekhyun don’t speak for a while. But when Baekhyun doesn’t send him a message or an email either, even when they’ve left for China, it starts bothering Kris.

He stares at the stickers that Baekhyun’s sent him everyday for the past two weeks. He wishes that Baekhyun would start sending them to him again. He doesn’t even care if Baekhyun doesn’t know what it means or how it gets his hopes up. He’d gladly have Baekhyun talking to him again if that was the only way.

“You’re depressing,” Minseok sits into the space on the couch next time him. “What’s up?”

“Uh, what do you do if someone’s been sort of giving you s but he doesn’t know that he’s doing it because he doesn’t know what it means and then he suddenly stops doing it?” Kris lets out in one breath.

Minseok blinks. “How can someone give you a without knowing that he’s doing it?” His eyes widen. “Is it a sleep walking thing? Has someone been giving s in their sleep?” He looks around the dorm suspiciously. “It’s Jongdae, isn’t it?”

“What—no,” Kris stammers. “That’s not the point! What are you talking about?”

“That is so the point!” Minseok argues. He grabs Kris’s collar so he can whisper in his ear. “Someone’s been giving me s while I’m asleep! It’s been happening for the past few weeks and it’s driving me insane. I don’t know who it is!” He lets Kris go and continues observing the other members in the M dorm.

Kris blinks. “Uh. Okay. That’s. Cool.” He quietly gets off the couch. “Talk to you later.”

Once he’s safely away from the living room and in the kitchen, he gulps down a glass of water (he thinks alcohol will be better) to sort of wash away the information that he’s unwillingly digested.

“It’s not Jongdae,” Lu Han tells him, coming out of nowhere.

“What,” Kris weakly responds. He doesn’t really want to continue this conversation. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with it.

“The one giving Minseok the s,” Lu Han explains knowingly. “Jongin has a way of knowing when Jongdae is straying so Jongdae wouldn’t even keep a hair out of line. Tao’s pretty invested in Joonmyun and you, the lion king, is pining over the baby lion.” He smiles. “I, on the other hand, think Sehun has the best so the only my mouth is wrapping itself on is his. So that leaves…” He smirks.

“Oh god,” Kris drinks another glass of water. “The management has not prepared me enough for this.” He pulls at his hair. He rarely regrets ever being put in EXO. Hearing about the members’ ual exploits is definitely all of those times.

“So when are you going to stop being stupid and start talking to Baekhyun again?” Lu Han frankly asks, swiftly changing the subject.

“I’m not being stupid,” Kris defends himself. “I am talking to him. But, in case you’ve forgotten, we are in China and that means I can’t just walk up to him and talk to him.” He resists the urge to poke his tongue out at Lu Han because he knows he just scored a point.

“Good lord, even leaders really aren’t exempt from stupidity,” Lu Han states loudly. He gives the leader a pointed look. “Why do you think Line was invented? You can call him, too! Email! Chat! Skype! Should I go on?”

He doesn’t score a point then.

The thing is Kris isn’t sure how to go about talking to Baekhyun anymore. The whole sticker thing has just made him realize that he wants so much more than friendship from Baekhyun. He wants the small touches, his smiles, and the quiet comfort between them to mean something. He’s not sure he can handle being just friends anymore.

“It’s not that easy,” Kris sighs.

“We go back tomorrow,” Lu Han reminds him, moving to walk out of the kitchen. “You have ‘till then to figure it out.”

-

It takes everyone an hour to finally get Kris and Baekhyun to sit on a couch beside each other. Kris silently resents this because he doesn’t need intervention. He can talk to Baekhyun if he wants to. Not that he doesn’t want to. He does. He just isn’t sure how to go about it yet.

Baekhyun is quiet beside him, flipping his phone over and over in his hands. Kris can tell that he’s as anxious as he is.

Taking a deep breath, Kris decides to start the conversation. He brought this awkwardness upon them and so he’s going to end it.

“Ayo,” Kris greets him. Way to go. Kris wants to smack himself.

“Hi,” Baekhyun squeaks in surprise.

“So, uh,” Kris stammers. “Whaddup?”

This is exactly what he doesn’t want between the two of them. They’ve never been awkward around each other and he’s always been thankful for that. Now that he allowed his feelings to get involved, he has screwed up their dynamic and he wants to punch himself on the face.

“Not much?” Baekhyun answers.

Kris sighs. “Look, I’m really—“

Baekhyun holds up a hand. “Before you say anything else,” he says, not quite meeting Kris’s eyes. “There’s something I want to say.”

“What is it?” Kris curiously asks. All sorts of hopeful things swirl in his head so he’s disappointed when Baekhyun turns to his phone.

Shortly after, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He takes it out and sees that Baekhyun has sent him a message.

Byun Baek

Kris swallows as soundlessly as he can. He tries to regulate his breathing because he is not going to get a with Baekhyun sitting innocently beside him.

“Uh,” Kris says intelligently.

“Duizhang,” Baekhyun pointedly says, pressing send again.

Byun Baek

“Baekhyun, that is not a bear kneeing a—“ Kris starts to explain once and for all.

“I know,” Baekhyun immediately agrees. “It’s a bunny giving a bear a .” He shifts nervously in his seat, still playing with his phone. “Jongdae told me.”

“You sent it to Jongdae, too??” Kris grunts.

“Yeah, uh, he and Jongin showed me what it meant, actually,” Baekhyun continues.

“They what!” Kris looks up and searches the room for Jongin or Jongdae. He’ll have their heads on a platter once he’s through with them.

“No not like that!” Baekhyun corrects him frantically, blushing. He chuckles, embarrassed. “They just told me about it face-to-face.”

“Well, I’m glad you finally know what it means,” Kris lamely says.

They sit in a silence Kris isn’t sure is any better than the earlier one. He thinks it has something to do with the disappointment blossoming in his chest that this didn’t turn out the way he had hoped it would.

He watches Baekhyun fiddle with his phone through the corner of his eye. Baekhyun is wearing his hair down, unstyled, his bangs covering his eyebrows; the way Kris really likes it. Baekhyun’s also wearing that yellow and black long-sleeved shirt that he thinks is incredibly cute on him. Baekbee is what the fans called him. Baekbee. Oh what he’d do in order to have this cute Baekbee in his arms.

He wonders what Baekhyun would do if he just suddenly kissed him.

He sighs and looks at his phone at the moment that a new message comes in.

Byun Baek

Kris chokes on his own breath. “Baekhyun, what—“

Byun Baek

Kris slowly turns to look at Baekhyun. He’s staring up at him determinedly in a way that makes Kris want to shove him down on the couch and devour him.

“Do you get it now?” Baekhyun asks him pointedly. He presses send again.

Byun Baek

“I—are you—“ Kris can’t quite process things at the moment. What exactly is Baekhyun trying to tell him? That he wants to give Kris a ? Or does he want Kris to give him a ? Or is it more than that?

Byun Baek

Kris merely tries to breathe properly.

Byun Baek

“Stop!” Kris cries out, grabbing Baekhyun’s hand.

Baekhyun stills. “Are you finally going to kiss me?”

“What,” Kris croaks. He holds his breath when Baekhyun turns fully in his seat and leans towards him, eyes on Kris’s lips. “We’re in the living room.” When he looks around, he finds the whole place has been vacated.

“Just us now,” Baekhyun whispers, his own lips as he eyes Kris’s.

“Baekhyun, are you sure that you want to—this isn’t just—I mean there are certain things that we—you know—I mean I know you know but—“

“Of course I know,” Baekhyun says, smirking slightly. He has a hand on Kris’s thigh.

Kris grabs Baekhyun’s hand that has started to make circular patterns on his thigh. It’s not helping his brain function.

“I like you, Baekhyun,” Kris blurts out. He turns a deep red. “I mean, I want you to know that this isn’t about the s or the or—“ Baekhyun laughs and Kris looks pained. “This isn’t funny,” he insists.

“Hyung, I’ve been trying to get you to notice me,” Baekhyun tells him. “All this time.” Kris gapes at him. “What, you think the touching and the smiles and the cuddling is normal? I’m never like that with anyone else. Not even Chanyeol. But you never did notice and so I asked Lu Han hyung for help.”

“You asked Lu Han for…” Realization dawns on Kris. Baekhyun likes him. Baekhyun has always liked him.

“Do you get it now?” Baekhyun presses.

“But why would you ask Lu Han for help? Of all people!” Kris wants to cry. “I swear I’m going to kill Lu Han when I get the chance—“

Baekhyun gracefully climbs onto Kris’s lap, effectively cutting Kris’s babble off, as well as his blood circulation.

“I’m shutting you up now,” Baekhyun tells him before he swoops down for a kiss.

-

“Well, well, look who finally got laid!” Jongdae announces.

Kris turns red as the EXO members start applauding as soon as he and Baekhyun come out of the room Baekhyun shares with Chanyeol. He hates that everyone knows that he and Baekhyun went at it. But, he thinks, that everyone’s really mistaken in calling Baekhyun a baby lion. Because he isn’t a baby in bed at all.

“I hope you cleaned up after!” Chanyeol yells from the kitchen, where he’s continuously harassing Kyungsoo with tickles.

“Told ya! That sticker has a 90% success rate!” Lu Han beams proudly. “You’re welcome!” he adds when Kris glowers at him, still red in the face, and Baekhyun blushes.

Kris sits on the sofa and Baekhyun snuggles next to him. Sehun and Jongin are playing video games again and the dorm is filled with raucous laughter of the members.

Except for Minseok, who is seated by himself, glancing at everyone suspiciously.

“What’s wrong with Minseok hyung?” Baekhyun asks. Kris chooses not to answer, instead tightening his arm around Baekhyun.

“Don’t worry about him,” Lu Han laughs. “He’s about to get the biggest reveal of his life.”

Minseok jumps in his seat when his phone beeps. They watch as he opens the message and, subsequently, makes a dying whale sound.

“Did Yixing send him…?” Kris doesn’t even want to finish his question.

“Yep,” Lu Han proudly declares. “It’s the sticker. 90% success rate! Just watch.”

Minseok jumps up from his seat, grabs Yixing, who is talking to Jongdae, by the collar and pushes him into a room.

Lu Han squeals and rushes to sit beside Sehun to tell him the news.

“Do you ever regret having debuted through EXO sometimes?” Kris asks, wondering if he would ever recover from the mental and emotional trauma of being in this group.

“Nope,” Baekhyun promptly answers. “Never.”

Kris snorts and looks at Baekhyun. “Are you sure because—“ He sees the knowing look that Baekhyun gives him. Oh.

Kris kisses him.

He kisses Baekhyun because Baekhyun is adorable and cute and fluffy and squishy. He kisses Baekhyun because he wants to. He kisses Baekhyun because he can.