"Baek! Baek! Look what I found!" Chanyeol almost tripped over himself and the multitudes of toys lying on the ground. "What is it, Yeol?" Baekhyun looked up from the house he was building with the colorful blocks scattered around him. He wasn't friends with the other and didn't really want anything to do with the awkward kid. "I found a bug!" Chanyeol shoved his hand in the older's face and opens his palm.

Baekhyun screams and smacks the hand away from him, in turn the bug falls right on him. "Get it off! Get it off!" Baekhyun jumped up and started trying to swat the bug off him. "Stop! You'll kill him." Chanyeol reached out and scooped it up into his hands. Baekhyun was crying by the time Chanyeol walked away to put the bug back in the grass. 

Chanyeol came bounding back over with the smile that Baekhyun never understood. "I'mma kill you!"

"Baek, will you go out with me?" A freshman Chanyeol asks as Baekhyun is comforting him from being picked on all day. Baekhyun had become so protective after those jerks locked Chanyeol in that closet right before their 6th grade graduation. Chanyeol was scared of the dark and although the light switch was in the room with him, he froze up before finding it. Baekhyun's name was being called when he ran in search of the other.

They fooled themselves into thinking high school would be different. That somehow Chanyeol's sudden growth spurt would change things. That being in all the same classes together would change something. That maybe they'd become magically cuter and popular. Though Baekhyun was very much well liked, Chanyeol not so much. 

Baekhyun had a reputation and a list of people chasing after him. Yes, Chanyeol was his best friend, but he didn't want Chanyeol's reputation bringing him down. If Baekhyun was going to be part of the popular kids by his sophomore year, he couldn't date Chanyeol. His new friends had enough problems with them just being friends

"No." Baekhyun replies with a heavy sigh. He's nursing the cuts on Chanyeol's elbows from being pushed on the P.E. track last period. "Why not?" Chanyeol asked and winced when Baekhyun rubbed alcohol into the wounds. Baekhyun doesn't think before he speaks.

"Because you're a loser and I have to protect my rep." If Baekhyun could shoot himself in that instance he probably would. He watched as Chanyeol's expression changed from happy just to be with the older to downright dejected. "Oh." Chanyeol pulls away and towers the older when he stands. "I understand." And then Chanyeol is leaving the nurse's office with a slight limp and Baekhyun just sits there in silence.

The next day Chanyeol avoids him. Chanyeol doesn't answer his texts or his calls and Baekhyun has even resorted to email. Chanyeol's mom tells him Chanyeol is sick or busy, when the older tries to visit. And they don't speak.

It's junior year and 11th grade was suppose to be meaningful by now. Chanyeol got all the good friends because Wu Fan took him into his group in place of Baekhyun. Chanyeol had both guys and girls hanging all over him at all times. Baekhyun couldn't get someone to look at him even if he wore neon pink in the sea of blue uniforms. 

Chanyeol co-captains the basketball team with Wu Fan. Because they're both giants and all the coaches love them and the players worship them. Baekhyun's pretty sure the cheerleaders have some creepy shrine in their locker room dedicated to Chanyeol.

Baekhyun was replaced. A whole lifetime of friendship replaced with shiny cars and fancy parties and a lifetime of dates. Baekhyun was now the target of all the people he beat up for Chanyeol their freshman year. Not that the younger even blinked an eye at the bullying, if he saw it.

Junior year passes before Baekhyun can even get close to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun are forced to be in a group together for their final English project in 12th grade. Baekhyun would like to thank fate for finally giving him a chance to talk to Chanyeol.

They're in Chanyeol's room with books spread all over the floor and fresh snacks on the edge of the bed. Chanyeol set some ground rules that they focus solely on the project because he'd rather get it done in time to make the match he has with his new friends later. Though Baekhyun's pretty sure he's just trying to get away from him as fast as possible.

Baekhyun tries not to focus on the wall full of pictures of Chanyeol and the people Baekhyun once called friends. There are none of Baekhyun and it stabs him in the chest harder than it possibly should. The stupid stickers Baekhyun helped Chanyeol put all over his doors and bed frame are gone. The frame has been replaced with a dark metal frame and the door replaced and Baekhyun wonders what happened to the stickers.

"Baekhyun, are you even listening?" Chanyeol asks and Baekhyun's only just realized he was just staring into space. Baekhyun just shakes his head and Chanyeol rolls his eyes. "Chanyeol?" Baekhyun asks after some time of silence has passed with nothing but note taking and more sighing. "What?" Baekhyun tries not to flinch at the still present bitterness in the younger's voice.

"Nevermind. It's not important." Baekhyun hopes Chanyeol doesn't notice the hitch of hesitation in his voice. Baekhyun has waited a lifetime for this and he can't think of what he's suppose to say. What do you say to your use-to-be best friend after you all but stomped on said friendship? How do you apologize? How was he suppose to get Chanyeol to look at him without a look of disgust?

"Baek, why are you crying?" Chanyeol put his book down and Baekhyun hadn't even realized he was tearing up. "I'm not crying. I don't cry." Baekhyun wiped his arm over his eyes and when he pulled it away there was bits of eyeliner on his sweater. "Yes you do. You use to cry at Sleeping Beauty." Chanyeol still sounded bitter and Baekhyun doesn't really blame him anymore. "If you ever tell anyone that I'll kill you." And he makes Chanyeol laugh.

"No seriously," Chanyeol moved a little closer but Baekhyun moved back and away. "What's wrong?" Chanyeol pressed. "What does it matter? It's not your problem anymore. I'm not your business anymore." Baekhyun's voice cracks and he feels the tears running unchecked onto his neck. He wipes his eyes again and all the eyeliner he worked so hard to put on smears. "Why are you wearing makeup?" Chanyeol asks. Of all the ideal things Baekhyun expected to be asked.

"It seemed to make people drawn to Luhan. I wanted someone to be drawn to me." Though that just seems selfish now. "People are attracted to Luhan cause he's got a nice ." Chanyeol smirks but Baekhyun doesn't think it's funny. Chanyeol use to think Baekhyun had the nicest out of everyone in that ty school.

"I bet he does. Sehun seems to like it." Sehun was Luhan's newest boy-toy. Sehun use to be Baekhyun's friend after the whole Chanyeol thing. Sehun use to play soccer with him and enjoy it. Now it just seemed like a chore for Sehun so Baekhyun has stopped asking. And once again the popular kids away one of his friends.

Baekhyun closes his eyes and wipes at them though he knows he's not gonna stop crying for awhile. "I know you hate me," Baekhyun's throat stops working and he has to try really hard not to start sobbing. "It's my fault, I know it is. I know you hate me. I know and I don't want to know." Baekhyun hears books shuffling on the floorboards and finally looks up.

Chanyeol is hovering like he doesn't know what to do. "I don't hate you." Though Baekhyun knows better now. "You're lying." Baekhyun accuses and looks back down at the book still in his lap. There's water spots from his crying. "I'm not." The younger is upon him and removing the book from the older's lap.

"Baek, would you look at me?" Chanyeol hasn't used that nickname in years and it twists Baekhyun's stomach. "I can't. Cause when I do all I see is what I lost because I was stupid." But he looks anyways and he thinks Chanyeol looks like he might start crying too. "I was so stupid, Yeol. I'm so sorry." 

Baekhyun does actually start sobbing when the younger is suddenly hugging him. "I'm sorry." Baekhyun opts to hide his face in Chanyeol's shoulder. "I know you are. I've known for a long time I was just scared." Chanyeol admitted and started rubbing Baekhyun's head like he remembered the other likes. "I forgive you, Baek. I did a long time ago."

"Baek, will you go out with me?" Chanyeol asks when the other is looking over his basketball injuries in the locker room. Wu Fan reluctantly let Baekhyun into his group. Baekhyun got Sehun back as a friend and learned that Luhan was taking him back to China to meet his family. Baekhyun learned Jongin and Kyungsoo were going backpacking for the summer and he had been made captain of the soccer team.

"Yes." Baekhyun won't make that mistake ever again. "I'd love that." This will be the first official date. Though Baekhyun counts all the movie nights and out-to-eats as dates too. "I would too." Zitao scoffs from the lockers next to the pair and shares a look with his boy-toy, Minseok. 

Baekhyun is finally popular. Baekhyun finally has Chanyeol back and they're better than ever. Baekhyun and Chanyeol happen to be best friends who often enjoy kissing and hand holding. And it's like they haven't skipped a beat in their time apart.