With a strangled gasp, Chanyeol burst through the door, cheeks flaming red and unruly caramel locks sprouting in all directions as his wide eyes – the left one twitching slightly – gazed, panicked, around the room before settling on the clock above the whiteboard.

“Seven minutes, Mr Park,” frowned the teacher, his narrowed eyes taking in the gangly boy leaning against the door, panting in an attempt to regain his breath. “Class started seven minutes ago.”

“I-I…Sorry,” he wheezed, before battling his way through a sea of snickering classmates, each holding beakers and setting up Bunsen burners while preparing for today’s experiment. “I thought I had Mathematics.”

Rolling his eyes at his scatter-brained student, the teacher simply waved him away, an unspoken instruction to just start the practical lesson, before hurrying over to yell at some chuckling boys who were playing with matches.

“We have Maths next period, you derp,” sniggered Sehun, handing Chanyeol his safety glasses and the worksheet. “You have a timetable for a reason.”

Scanning his eyes over the procedure – apparently they were supposed to be testing food samples for organic chemicals – Chanyeol merely grunted, before he grabbed a beaker, filled it with water, and placed it onto the tripod. With a smirk lingering on his face, Sehun quickly turned the Bunsen’s flame to blue, before he started cutting chunks off a potato.

For the next ten minutes, there was nothing but the sound of Chanyeol crushing celery with a mortar and pestle, and Sehun cursing every time he accidently touched the hot glass of the beaker, as they worked diligently on completing their task; however, as Sehun looked up from where he was scribbling down the results from testing an egg white for protein, he noticed that his lab partner was a little distracted.

By a certain Byun Baekhyun.

Watching as Chanyeol swirled the test-tube containing a mixture of gelatine and Benedict’s solution in the heated water, his eyes flickering up more often than not to the laughing boy at the bench next to them, before his lips curved into a smile of his own.

Needless to say, Chanyeol was in love.

And Sehun decided to have some fun with that fact.

Fighting to keep a -eating grin off his face, Sehun cleared his throat to gain his friend’s attention, the urge to burst out laughing growing as Chanyeol blinked at him innocently.

“So…who’s your ‘Big Cheese’?” he asked casually, as if the pair was discussing something as trivial as the weather.

Chanyeol blinked in confusion.

“I’m sorry…my what?” Chanyeol replied cautiously, almost as if he was afraid of where this seemingly ridiculous conversation was headed.

“Oh, you know,” began Sehun, still struggling to hide his amusement – because Chanyeol had absolutely no idea! “Your ‘Red Apple’…your ‘Tree of hearts’ – your Shiny Shoes!”

He gaped at Sehun, his gaze travelling over the smug expression and supressed smile, before he set the test tube back into the water, and frowned.

“I honestly have no idea what you’re on about,” he stated, before grabbing the bottle of iodine and adding a few drops to a piece of bread. “I really don’t.”

Sighing heavily at Chanyeol obvious stupidity, Sehun snatched the dropper from him, ignored the surprised puppy-eyes, and looked him squarely in the eyes.

“Your crush, Chanyeol,” he said, drawing out every last syllable as if he was talking to a three-year-old. “Who’s your crush?”

“Crush…cheese – I’m lost,” muttered Chanyeol, shaking his head. “Why’d you ask me about cheese if you wanted to know who I liked?”

“Because ‘Big Cheese’ is a metaphor for who you like,” grumbled Sehun, annoyed that his spy-like plans had gone awry due to Chanyeol incompetence as a target. “Like a code word and because, dammit, I happen to like cheese.”

“Oh…”

Chanyeol’s mouth was in the shape of an ‘o’, as the bricks of realisation finally hit him in the head, before he clamped his mouth shut, a nonchalant expression on his face and shrugged casually.

“I don’t like anyone.”

Sehun was unable to hold back his loud guffaw at Chanyeol’s blatant lie, and shaking his head in amusement – because, hey, if he didn’t know Chanyeol at all he would’ve believed him – he chuckled at Chanyeol’s noble attempt at a poker face.

“Come off it,” he snickered; not bothering to mask his mirth as he lightly punched his friend in the shoulder. “I know that you like someone.”

“I don’t!” he protested, his left eye twitching into oblivion as Sehun continued to laugh at him.

“So…not even Byun Baekhyun?” he murmured, eyes darting over to the next table where said boy was busy writing down his results, forehead puckered in concentration as his tongue cheekily poked out of the side of his mouth.

Chanyeol risked a look, and his gaze softened as it trailed over fluffy chocolate locks, flawless fair skin with a hint of pink on his cheeks, smiling crescent eyes rimmed with black before settling on his rosy lips.

Turning his attention back to Sehun, the latter smirking knowingly at him – eyebrow raised as if to say ‘do try to deny it now’ – Chanyeol took a deep breath before he replied.

“No…not even him.”

Chanyeol swore that his heart died just a little bit at the blasphemous words left his mouth, and judging by the frown on Sehun’s face, he wasn’t too pleased either.

“O-kay…so if I asked him out, you wouldn’t have any objections?” Sehun pressed on, hoping that Chanyeol would just crumble and admit that he liked the boy already.

“N-No…none at all,” he stammered in reply, and Sehun inwardly winced at the pained look in his eyes.

But sometimes a little pain is necessary.

“Okay,” he shrugged, removing his glasses and setting them on the bench as he made sure that the teacher was preoccupied – he quietly praised the lord that his class had a resident pyromaniac; the back curtains had just caught on fire. “I’ll ask him now.”

Chanyeol gawked at him, stunned to the point where his jaw was hanging open, as Sehun sauntered over to Baekhyun’s bench, giving the boy a friendly smile as he paused and looked up at him.

“DON’T YOU DARE MAKE A MOVE ON MY BIG CHEESE!” Chanyeol suddenly blurted out, his loud bellow shocking the rest of the class as they turned to stare at the commotion.

Chanyeol twitched.

Opening and closing his mouth as words failed to help him explain, Chanyeol felt his cheeks blazing a rather bright scarlet as he nervously wrung his hands, unsure of what he should do.

“Chanyeol has a confession to make,” Sehun said, an encouraging grin on his face that made Chanyeol want to pour acid all over him, before handing him over to their fire-loving classmate. “Go one…”

For some reason, Sehun had the feeling that good things would come from this…and they’d better, or Chanyeol would murder him!

“I-I…I’m in love with someone,” Chanyeol mumbled, and quiet whispers began to circulate the room as his peers absorbed this latest titbit of gossip. “A-And this person’s…uh, nickname is Cheese.”

A loud gasp filled the room, and all eyes turned to Byun Baekhyun as he stared at Chanyeol, the hurt on his crestfallen face visible to all. Kyungsoo – Baekhyun’s lab partner and best friend – glared daggers at Chanyeol before wrapping his arm around his teary-eyed friend.

The bricks of realisation hit him once more.

Baekhyun got upset when he said that he liked someone called Cheese…could it be that it was because he didn’t say Bacon (the more obvious nickname for the boy)?

…If this were true, then it would mean that Baekhyun liked him back!

Holding onto that sliver of hope, Chanyeol allowed his face to break into his signature dorky smile before he took a step towards Baekhyun, his face falling as the boy suddenly bolted out of the classroom. Looking to Sehun for advice, his friend rolled his eyes and pointed in the direction of the door.

After nearly ten minutes – most of those explaining to a hall monitor why he didn’t have a pass – of wandering around the science block of the school, Chanyeol came across a hunched figure sitting on some steps near of the greenhouse. Plucking up all the courage that he could possible muster, Chanyeol tentatively made his way over to him.

“Baekhyun?”

Not getting any acknowledgement from the shaking boy whatsoever, Chanyeol sighed, before he joined him on the step.

“Who is Cheese?” Baekhyun asked quietly, a slight tremor to his voice. “Do I know them?”

For a moment they just stared at each other, Chanyeol taking in the red eyes – the eyeliner now smudged, tear-stained cheeks, and the quivering moistened lips, while Baekhyun gazed at the gorgeous boy who happened to have a thing for Cheese.

“You’re my ‘Big Cheese’,” Chanyeol confessed, his heart swelling with joy as Baekhyun’s face lit up, and the most beautiful of smiles graced his lips. “I’m in love with you.”

And with that, Chanyeol gently placed his fingers under Baekhyun’s chin and tilted his face towards him, his lips curving into a tender smile as he saw the love glimmering in Baekhyun’s deep brown eyes, before he lightly brushed his lips against Baekhyun’s own, delighting in the tingling feeling that it gave him.

The kiss deepened, slender arms wound their way around Chanyeol’s neck and delicate fingers entwined themselves within his hair, as Chanyeol somehow managed to pull Baekhyun onto his lap – the boy basically straddling him – as the pads of his thumbs slipped under Baekhyun’s shirt and rubbed circles into the soft skin, eliciting a low moan from him.

Taking advantage of Baekhyun’s parted lips, Chanyeol’s tongue quickly slid inside, exploring and tasting all that Baekhyun had to offer, and as their tongues engaged in a slick battle for dominance, twisting and twirling, Chanyeol came to the conclusion that he quite liked kissing Byun Baekhyun.

Baekhyun pulled away with a muffled gasp, resting his forehead against Chanyeol’s as they both panted for air, before he chuckled, shaking his head as Chanyeol looked at him questioningly.

“Cheese…really?!”

Chanyeol huffed defensively, before joining in with Baekhyun’s laughter.

They stayed that way for a little while longer, wrapped in each other’s loving embrace with the occasional chaste kiss, before Chanyeol stiffened as he remembered something.

“Baekhyun?”

“Mm?”

“Will…you be my boyfriend?” he asked nervously, feeling his heartbeat quicken and his palms become clammy as he awaited Baekhyun’s response.

“In one condition,” Baekhyun answered, a playful glint in his eye as he pecked Chanyeol on the nose. “You promise to never refer to me as Cheese ever again.”

“Aw, but babe – You’ll forever be my ‘Big Cheese’,” Chanyeol whined teasingly pinching Baekhyun’s sides, causing the latter to squeal.

“And you’ll forever be my endearingly silly Chanyeol,” he smiled in mild exasperation, before intertwining their fingers together as he stood up, tugging Chanyeol upright.

With hands interlocked, the new couple walked back into science a few minutes later, their blushing – yet nevertheless radiant – faces resulting in a few rowdy members of the class erupting into cheers, proudly led by Sehun, while the teacher simply shook his head and muttered a brief ‘about time’.

Pressing his lips against Baekhyun’s cheek, lingering for a few seconds, Chanyeol squeezed his hand before joining a widely-grinning Sehun back at their bench, keen to finish the experiment so that he could leave class on time – preferably with Baekhyun by his side. And as an orangey-yellow cube on a glass dish caught his attention, he lifted his eyes and met Sehun’s laughing ones.

“That’s a big piece of cheese you’ve got there, Chanyeol,” he grinned, smirking as he caught Baekhyun staring dreamily at his friend.

“I know,” he replied, grabbing the piece of cheese and winking at a flushing Baekhyun before popping it in his mouth. “And he’s all mine.”

Word Count: 1,966

A/N: So yeah...here you have it. :D

BTW, when I had this conversation with my friend, we only talked for the whole lesson about who are Big Cheeses were...LOL XD

Comment and lemme know what you thought! ^_^

Love Minspro

p.s. Check out my other baekyeol fics?