Baekhyun POV:

From the very first day we met, Tao and I had always been awkward with each other. It’s not that I don’t like him (although Luhan says that’s what he thinks). It was the language barriers. Tao was still learning Korean, and I was still learning Chinese, so we always had broken conversations, sometimes in English, like “You music like?” and “You good how?” …which made it even more awkward. Of course, I’ve never had to deal with the problem until now, when we were both allocated the same room.

Narrator POV:

Baekhyun and Tao stood outside their dorm room, both waiting for the other to walk in first. Tao looked at the floor and started shuffling his feet, while Baekhyun started twiddling his thumbs.

A few minutes later, Baekhyun was suddenly pushed into the room, temporarily breaking the awkwardness between him and Tao. “What the-“ he looked behind him and was greeted by an ever-bubbly red head, with Kris towering behind him. Kris took a glance at Tao, worried about the maknae, he tried to comfort him by speaking Chinese.

“你还好吗? (Are you ok?)”

“不完全 (not exactly)”

Kris sighed, knowing Chanyeol hasn’t made things any better “Leave them alone.” Said the leader, smacking him hard on the head as he walked into the room next door.

“Ouch, that was hard.” Chanyeol sulked, rubbing the back of his head as he followed in after Kris.

“Hyung wait!” Baekhyun ran out of the room and tried to pull him in, “Don’t leave me…” he thought out loud, knowing Tao wouldn’t understand a word of it. But as he looked back, the younger had his brows furrowed, as if he’d been hurt, perhaps not by words but by actions. Baekhyun rubbed the back of his head, feeling a slight pang of guilt in his chest, “um…” he had his hand close to Tao’s shoulder “Sorry…” he patted him. Tao tilted his head to the side “It’s ok, I know you don’t understand.” Baekhyun smiled sheepishly.

Of course, the awkwardness didn’t end there. Both were now standing in front of their bunk bed, deciphering which one was going to take the top. Baekhyun took in a deep breath and exhaled.

“So…” Baekhyun bit his lip, “Do you want the top bunk?” he gestured with his hand.

“Oh…” Tao managed to say “…ok,” with that, he took his shoes off and climbed to the top.

~~*~~

Both boys lay on their backs, with their hands folded on their chests as if they were vampires in a coffin.

“So… Tao…” Baekhyun attempted to start a conversation.

“Hm?” Tao replied, still staring at the ceiling.

“How’s… life?”

“Good.” Was the only reply he got. He was hoping Tao would elaborate. But no, a proper conversation was still too advanced for him.

~~*~~

It wasn’t until a few minutes later; Baekhyun could hear Tao playing games on his phone. Being the curious little bacon he was, he decided to climb up and check what game he was playing.

“Tao, what are you playing?” he asked. Once again, Tao furrowed his brows and tilted his head to the side. Baekhyun chuckled and pointed to his phone, “Game.”

“Oh!” Tao shuffled along to the side so his hyung could sit next to him, and patted the space, to indicate Baekhyun to sit. A small smile started to form on Baekhyun’s face as he shuffled onto his allocated seat. He looked at the screen, and raised a brow; he’d never seen this game before. “Teach me.” he said, to which Tao gladly complied.

It was amazing how technology could connect people. Tao had taught Baekhyun how to play his game, a game he wasn’t very good at, but nonetheless, at least they were finally interacting with each other.

Baekhyun had already threatened to throw Tao’s phone out the window ten times, from the amount of rage that had welled up inside him. Thankfully, Tao was quick enough to snatch the phone from Baekhyun. He couldn’t help but laugh at Baekhyun’s facials when he lost a round, or when he tried to snap his phone his half, (no really, he tried) or even when he tried to punch a hole in the wall but ended up hurting his hand instead.

A few minutes later, Baekhyun got tired of the game. He gave the phone back to Tao, and decided to lie down, hands folded on his chest, eyes staring at the ceiling. Suddenly things got very awkward again. Baekhyun didn’t know whether he should go back to his own bed, or stay on the top bunk with Tao. And Tao couldn’t decide on whether he should lie down with Baekhyun, or just stay sitting up. Awkward silence filled the air…

“DAMMIT CHANYEOL I CAN’T CONCENTRATE!” Kris’ voice boomed through the walls, and Baekhyun sat up almost instantly. Both boys looked at each other with wide eyes, before they pressed their ears against the wall to listen to the rest of the conversation.

“But Kris, the goat-“ Chanyeol tried to explain.

“I don’t care! I don’t care about the stupid goat Chanyeol! I just. Don’t. CARE!”

“But… but it screams…”

“ARGH!”

Kris Douizhang had stomped out of the room and started swearing, in Mandarin, then in Cantonese, then in Korean (to which Baekhyun covered his mouth in shock), and no one could have missed his emphasised “ you Chanyeol!” before he slammed the door shut. The last thing they heard was Chanyeol’s hurried footsteps.

The room was silent again, until both boys suddenly burst into laughter. Tao had fallen back on his bed, holding his stomach as he continued laughing. Baekhyun had his face buried in his pillow, with sounds of muffled laughter coming from his mouth.

A few minutes later, the boys stopped to catch their breath, each with a hand on their stomach. Baekhyun lifted his face from the pillow to look at Tao “You know Tao,” He started ruffling his hair “Maybe when I learn a little more Chinese, and You learn a little more Korean, we can finally stop being so awkward with each other.”

Tao just smiled and nodded, not understanding a word Baekhyun just said. But, he had a feeling he knew what he was trying to get across… well… sort of…

By this time, Baekhyun couldn’t be bothered to go back to his bed, “Goodnight Tao,” he turned around so his back was facing him. Tao yawned, and positioned himself on the bed, so now both boys’ backs were facing each other “Goodnight Hyung,” He replied, with a smile on his face.