It was only six in the morning, and the winter air was seeping through old windows of a tiny home. The house was made nearly seventy years ago, and it was meant for someone living alone who wanted an office space. However this office space was a bedroom for a twenty-one year old. The only heater in the home was in the master bedroom which held a sleeping elder. She was about eight-five.

            Chanyeol slid open the office door to see Baekhyun wrapped tight in covers, yet still freezing cold. He took of his jacket and placed it on top of his friend so he could warm up just a little more. Baekhyun squirmed a little, mushing his face deeper into his pillow and releasing a quiet sigh. The younger male smiled and walked out the room to start making some warm tea and breakfast. On some days, Chanyeol was allowed to come over and help Baekhyun start his day. Baekhyun’s grandmother insisted he do this more often, because it’s getting harder for her to wake up early and make food. He didn’t want to say it, but Chanyeol doesn’t see this woman living for much longer.

“Yeol, what are you doing here,” Baekhyun yawned walking in the kitchen.

“Ah, good morning. Sorry I didn’t want to wake you. Did you sleep okay?”

“Mmm,” he mumbled laying his head down on the table.

“Here take my sweater. You look freezing.”

“I’m always freezing. You keep it and I’ll go get changed for school. Thanks for making breakfast.”

            Baekhyun turned around letting a smile wipe across his face. He doesn’t understand why seeing Chanyeol so early in the morning makes him happy. If it was Jongdae or Minseok waking him up at this time, he’d tell them to go home. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Chanyeol began to wonder where his friend was. Changing shouldn’t take this long. Carefully opening the door, he saw Baekhyun asleep on the bed again. He carefully tip-toed up to the sleeping body and lifted him in his arms. Baekhyun woke up with wide eyes and blushing cheeks. He started to kick and fuss around. Chanyeol is always treating him like a little baby. Sure there was huge height difference between the two, but Chanyeol always makes Baekhyun feel even smaller.

“You don’t treat me like a hyung,” Baekhyun sighed once he placed on his feet.

“I can’t treat you like one! You’re so small and fun sized!”

            There were so many words Baekhyun wished he could say, but they all were wiped from his mind when he saw Chanyeol’s handsome smile. It was a real goofy smile, but it fit his personality perfectly. Despite being just a few months younger, Chanyeol acted much older than Baekhyun. He was a goof ball whenever with friends, but a complete protector of his hyung. No one was allowed to hurt Baekhyun in anyway without getting a mouth full from the tall Chanyeol. He wasn’t sure why he was so protective, because no one else gets the royal treatment like Baekhyun.

            After filling their bellies with warm and delicious homemade kimchee, the two boys began their daily trip into the city of Busan. They both went to Pusan National University on fully paid scholarships. Baekhyun was finishing his final year at the College of Arts department. He majored in musical composition and sound design. Ever since he was a young boy, music and singing have made a significant impact on his life. Chanyeol was much like his best friend. He too attended the College of Arts, but his majors were theater and music therapy.

            Years ago, whenever he and Baekhyun had first met, the boy would cry a lot because he missed his parents. He said he didn’t know where they were, or why they left him. Chanyeol used to sing to him or bang his hands against the table to make music. It would stop Baekhyun for a little while and brighten his mood. Music was his therapy. Seeing Baekhyun happy was Chanyeol’s therapy. Now they both listened to a softer piece of music through small ear buds. Baekhyun got the ear bud for the right side, and Chanyeol got the left. They leaned their heads against each other letting each rise and fall of the orchestra flow between them. This was the best part of all the traveling to school.

~*~*~*~*

            Classes were getting harder now that Baekhyun was in his final year of undergraduate school. He found that studying in the library gave him much more focus than going into the study hall room. Not too many people liked studying in the library because the librarian was a very strict woman. She would not allow two people to sit next to each other or even let them talk if they were close enough to her. Though it was that silence which made Baekhyun concentrate the most. He was studying the triangle of fifths. It was a term used in music describing what instrument plays which part of the cord. The work itself is somewhat tedious, so the chatter Baekhyun heard from behind a book shelf distracted him. He listened in close because he thought the voice sounded familiar.

“I-I know we haven’t talked much, but I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow night.”

“Like…a date?”

            The chatter was a typical girl confessing her love to some guy. Baekhyun doesn’t like romance much. At least that’s what he thinks. So many girls have given him boxes of wonderful chocolates and beautiful gifts, but he always turned them down. Literally no woman has ever interested him. After a few minutes of trying to focus on his work, the chatter continued on. He needed a book in the aisle they were in, but he thought he'd go from the side that sounds farthest, and hopefullly not ruin their moment. Even if he did, Baekhyun doesn’t care because romance to him is silly.

“I really like you, Chanyeol. It would mean a lot if we went out for dinner or something.”

“Well, I guess a night out won’t hurt anyone, right?”

            Baekhyun froze in place when he turned the corner and saw Chanyeol agreeing to a date with some pretty-faced girl. He could feel his heart dropping so deep into his stomach. It shouldn’t bother him that his best friend is going on date. Their whole life, neither of them have dated or even liked someone, so it’s only fair that Chanyeol experiences love now. Chanyeol turned around to see Baekhyun standing their in shock with pain smearing across his face. It almost looked as if he had been beaten with a ton of bricks.

“Baek,” Chanyeol said shocked.

“I just needed a book…B-but forget it. I don’t need it. Sorry to interrupt. Bye, Yeol.”

            His voice was shaking while he spoke. Chanyeol has never seen his hyung look so upset before. He wanted to grab him and ask him what was wrong while he ran away, but there was a girl who just spilt her heart out to him. The decent thing to do would at least talk to her before running off. It felt like the wrong thing to do, but Chanyeol turned back around to talk to the girl. Meanwhile, Baekhyun collected his books fast and ran out the doors. He was trying to fight back the tears, but it wasn’t working. They poured down his face almost as quickly as he ran. Baekhyun shouldn’t feel like this at all, but his heart was in a million pieces in his stomach.

~*~*~*~*

“Well, that’s great for him,” Minseok smiled taking a bite into his muffin. “Why aren’t you happy he has a date?”

“She’s not even that pretty,” Baekhyun sighed. “I wish Chanyeol had said no to her.”

“Baek… In all the years we’ve been friends, you have never gotten so defensive over dates. Jongdae and I always go on them and you don’t say anything bad. Now that Chanyeol is finally going out with a girl, you get jealous?”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Yes you are,” Minseok said putting down his food. “You look like you’re about to cry and throw a fit. What’s gotten into you?”

            Jealous seemed like a bit of a stretch. It didn’t make sense to Baekhyun why he would be jealous over some silly little date his best friend is going on. In fact, he should be giving good tips to Chanyeol on how to make a perfect date happen. But instead he was wishing all types of horrible scenarios so that the date was cancelled. The weird thing to Baekhyun wasn’t really that he was jealous, because anyone trying to take away his Yeol would cause these feelings. It was the fact that his heart felt as if it was breaking down into a million little pieces.

“Why do I feel like I’m heart broken? Why do I feel my heart in my stomach breaking apart? It’s just a date…”

            Minseok put down his pencil and rested his hands on his books. Ever since they were young teens, he would never try to break apart the bond Chanyeol and Baekhyun had. It seemed to him as if they were just inseparable friends that may as well be brothers. But as they all got older, it was pretty obvious that they weren’t like brothers. They were two people afraid of telling each other their real feelings. Hiding behind masks too worried to break the bond between them if feelings aren’t the same.

“Baekhyun, you are in love with him.”

“What,” he said nearly choking on his tea.

“You are in love with Park Chanyeol, and you have been since we were teenagers. Admit it.”

            There was a long silence between the two. Minseok stared at his friend for sometime before shaking his head and returning to his studies. Baekhyun bit his lower lip and closed his text books. It was getting late anyways and now he needed to go home. He waved goodbye to Minseok and headed home with a head fogged with thoughts of Chanyeol. You are in love with Park Chanyeol. It seemed like a perfectly good explanation as to why he had the jealous feeling, but something still wasn’t right. There was a still and emptiness in his heart that he couldn’t understand.

            The bright lights from Baekhyun’s front porch snapped him out of his trance. He was so in thought he didn’t even pay attention to the fact that his body walked him home while his head was in another world. It was warmer inside the wooden doors, but not by much. Baekhyun ran to his grandmother’s room to see how she was. She sat in bed coughing heavily and drinking warm green tea. Her weak hands waved at Baekhyun before she signaled to him to turn off her lights. Baekhyun wanted to stay with her and see if she was alright, but the exhausted looking elder wanted to sleep. Hopefully with some rest, her illness will go away.