(a/n) MY APOLOGIES FOR THE MONTH LONG DELAY OF UPDATE :(

One can never say how inevitable things can happen. No one could really explain why the roses are red or the skies are blue so much so that he couldn’t find any reason why Chanyeol was there at the moment he thought he should be alone, but one thing was sure for Baekhyun—it was that, one meets a certain person when they least expect it.

The encounter itself was inevitable.

He chose to face it.

He was anxious. And very anxious at that.

“I- ugh. Hello there.” Baekhyun stuttered as he started with the greetings followed by an almost 45⁰ bow.

Chanyeol responded with an equal gesture of formality.

“Oh Hi! Did I scare you? I apologize. You looked a little bit frightened. I have no idea that someone would still be here at this late hour.” The taller guy looked surprised at the sudden event.

‘I thought so, too.’  Baekhyun said to himself.

The voice that came out from his big physique was entirely far from what Baekhyun had imagined. Chanyeol’s boyish charm seemed to him as the perfect example of ‘don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover’ saying. His low-pitched voice bellowed the hallowed room and it kept ringing into his ears which made quite an impact. It was tough, yes, but most importantly, Baekhyun find it very much endearing.

 “By the way, I’m Park Chanyeol. You are?” He stuck out his right hand initiating a handshake.

“Bae-Baekhyun. It’s Byun Baekhyun. Nice to meet you!” His response almost turned into a shriek if he hadn’t restrained too much.

“By the way, I’m not a thief. Just to make it clear.” Flashing a big grin towards him.

“I’m a student as well. If you’d known any better.” He continued.

“I know.” Baekhyun’s tone seemed much calmer now.

“You do?” Chanyeol was taken aback by his reply.

“U-hm. Yeah, of course! Who wouldn’t know you? Yo-You’re a football superstar!” He got tensed again to stutter morosely.

“Ah! Oh, that’s right. Again, my apologies.” His laugh was very, very lively.

Baekhyun felt shameful at how their conversation flowed. He never thought that he would be socially-inept at times like this, but more than ever, his heart never stopped racing—even up to the point when Chanyeol invited himself over to his desk.

In a short amount of time, the two of them became fonder with each other. An hour. An hour was all that it needed for them to brush off the formalities, and that they seemed to be on an alternate universe. They laughed hard at their silly antics, spilt out jokes that the both of them knew was lame, and eventually talking about how their day became interesting. And then, the night goes by very fast that they did not notice that the rain had subsided and all that was left was the sound of the tiny drops of the after-rain dews.

---

It was a chilly Tuesday morning that embraced Baekhyun from his 8-hours sleep. He got up at the usual time, freezing and then jumped out of bed 10 minutes after he snoozed out his old-school alarm clock. He walked towards his personal closet to fix himself up before leaves home for school. He faced the wall mirror with a ghastly look—his hair was all over the place, his blue-striped pajamas were buttoned misguidedly and how he placed on his glasses incoherently did helped at how horrible he looked. One can guess, Baekhyun was never the OC type of person—he was a clean one, but never the tidiest.

The sizzling sounds of the egg simultaneously being fried with his favorite maple –treated bacon strips boosted Baekhyun’s appetite that morning. He considered it an early incentive to eat a lot more than the usual to give himself enough energy for today’s examination. He stood right after finishing his third serving, did the dishes like a good son, and kissed his mother on the cheeks signaling his departure to school.

“Take care, sweetie. Good luck on your midterms.” His mom said the simplest, yet the most encouraging words.

“Alright, mom! Thanks.” He gave out a sincere smile as he trailed off their house.

---

“Baekhyuuuuun!” A loud screeching voice called from behind.

He turned to face the human being who was utterly noisy. It comes to no surprise when his guess was correct. It was his bestfriend, Kyungsoo.

“Baek. You gotta help me!” Kyungsoo’s voice was exasperated—almost, pitiful.

“What is it?” Baekhyun already has an initial hunch on his mind.

“I fell asleep again! What to do? The physics midterms exam’s today. Mr. Kim won’t be easy on me if I flunk his subject again.” He cried infuriatingly at his bestfriend.

“I guessed so.” Peering deeply against his bestfriend’s muttering.

“Please, Baek. I need your help. All I did was drool over my notes and the presence of the humungous what-not of a book did not help at all!” Grabbing Baekhyun’s sleeves as he pleaded.

Kyungsoo was really helpless. His best friend was always successful on making pity parties which makes Baekhyun fall for it over and over again.

“Stop ranting, and let’s get going. We’ve got about 1 hour to spare before the midterms. I’ll lend you these and review you at the possible questions for this exam.” Baekhyun grabbed Kyungsoo by the wrist and rushed towards the nearest desk.

“Thanks! This is why I love you, Baek.” He chortled sheepishly.

“Don’t thank me yet! You’ve got to treat me a strawberry sundae later—don’t forget an extra scoop!” He half-heatedly jolted towards him with a soft giggle.

Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes out of sheer disbelief.

---

The midterm’s exam just finished. Baekhyun was confident that he did well, and Kyungsoo, believed that his bestfriend did not even break a damn cold sweat—while he suffered on trying to remember a lot of what Baekhyun had taught him.

It was never really easy to cram, but it was his only choice.

---

The once chilly morning quickly turned into a hot and arid afternoon. Today, the classes ended early because the students just finished their midterms. Time check, it was 2:06pm. Baekhyun had arranged his school textbooks from the school’s lockers. He was accompanied by his bestfriend along the skimpy hallways, as he promised him an ice cream treat a while ago.

A sudden thought came to Baekhyun’s mind. ‘Chanyeol’. It has been two days since their anonymous conversation at the library. He’s still as astonished as before and proud of himself that he actually was able to converse with the giant athlete.

On their way outside the tall, metal gates of the school, Baekhyun was caught off-guard. He saw Chanyeol walking straight past the gates—on which he assumed that it was already time for their football practice. Needless to him, Chanyeol’s gaze caught his eyes and the boy waved widely while beaming a big smile towards him. That caught Kyungsoo’s attention—and he was shocked as Baekhyun was.

At the initial response, Baekhyun quickly turned away, blushing like never before, and not giving in to Chanyeol’s warm greetings. He never did looked back to see Chanyeol’s reaction at his disrespectful action. All he knew that he was acting according to his stimuli, not thinking rationally at that time.

“Kyungsoo, let’s go. It’s scorching hot in here! I want my ice cream, now!” He demanded his bestfriend as he pulled him abruptly away from the little scene.

Oh sure, it was not a ‘little’ scene. It was a big revelation, and Baekhyun’s damn sure that his bestfriend won’t let him get away with it.

“Oh, you little sly of a liar. You’ve got some explaining to do, buddy.” Kyungsoo interjected when they strolled along the pathway as they made their quest to the ice cream parlor. 

(a/n) should I still continue? Hahahaha. Ugh. :(