Today was Friday.

Chanyeol always loved Friday because it meant that weekend was just around the corner. He could relax for a bit, maybe lying in bed all day, playing online games, or hanging out with his buddies.

But Chanyeol especially loved this week’s Friday. This was the fifth day he had been dating Baekhyun and everything was going really smooth between them.

After the day they grabbed ice cream together, Chanyeol and Baekhyun always went home together. Well, not exactly, since they would always parted whenever Baekhyun’s bus arrived. But it was more than enough for Chanyeol.

In such a short time they chatted everyday, he was beginning to know about his boyfriend better. He knew that Baekhyun was the youngest in his family. He had an older brother but he worked in Japan for the time being. Baekhyun lived only with his mother. His father had passed away when he was in the sixth grade.

Baekhyun started singing in the fourth grade and he told Chanyeol that he wanted to take music major later in college. Chanyeol thought it was amazing because he also wanted to take music major. Both of them ended up making promise to enter the best music university together. Chanyeol was happy at the thought that there was a chance they might still be together for a quite long time.

Meanwhile, Chanyeol didn’t tell much about his story if Baekhyun didn’t ask for it. He told Baekhyun that he only lived with his older sister who worked as a news anchor, and his parents lived in Canada for business. He also told the story how he could be friend with his trio best friends. Other than that, Chanyeol’s life was pretty much uneventful to tell. But, Baekhyun always seemed interest on it, and Chanyeol really appreciated it.

Spending time with Baekhyun made Chanyeol sure that his boyfriend was perfect, if not flawless. The feel inside his heart toward the older was overwhelming that Chanyeol was slightly afraid because he never felt this way before. Not to mention, they have only dated for five days. There were so many things which he hadn’t known and seen, and it made him wonder how many times that Chanyeol would fall for Baekhyun.

Chanyeol put out his phone and hid it under his desk so the teacher wouldn’t catch him. He was mentally debating to text Baekhyun or not, wanting to ask him go out again today after school. Getting Baekhyun’s number might be the highlight of Chanyeol’s week. He felt like a teenage girl when Baekhyun handed him his number. Since then, Chanyeol had always tried to control the urge to text him every minutes.

Just as Chanyeol tapped Baekhyun’s number, his phone beeped and Baekhyun’s name came up at the screen, making Chanyeol squelled a little. He aggresively pressed the open button to see Baekhyun’s message, and just pouted right away after he read the text.

Chanyeol, I can’t go home together today. Student council meeting.

And his pout turned into big grin right away after he received the second message.

Don’t pout. Not when I’m not there to witness it.

~

Today was Friday.

Baekhyun hated Friday because it meant he would have to stay after school ended. Student council always had meeting at Friday, discussing about everything happened in the school that week and what was the plan for the upcoming week.

Baekhyun thought that it was partly useless. What was the point of having meeting every ing week anyway? It wasn’t like the school was always eventful everyweek though. Sometimes the council member didn’t have the official meeting. They just hanged out together since there wasn’t much to talk about either.

It wasn’t that Baekhyun hated to be around his student council friends. It just that Baekhyun hated going home late. He didn’t like going home when it was already dark. He hated dark.

Good thing that today they actually discussed something important. They discussed about this year’s school festival which has been decided to be hold in early October. Therefore, the students would have approximately one month to prepare, and the student council wouldn’t be too burdened also.

Baekhyun let out a heavy sigh as he leaned his back to his seat. The meeting was over and some of his friend already had started to leave the room.

“You’re not going, hyung?”

Baekhyun turned his head to his vice president, Tao, “No, I’m sleeping here. Of course, I’m going home, Tao,” Baekhyun answered sarcasedly. “I just want to rest for awhile.”

Tao stood up from his seat and patted Baekhyun’s shoulder, “you did great, hyung.”

Baekhyun smiled, “I know.”

As Tao put some of his stuff in his bag, he decided to tease his president, “so, hyung, how’s Chanyeol?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “knock it off, Zitao.”

“I care about you, hyung. What is so wrong about that?” he pouted fakely.

Baekhyun kept silent for awhile, before he finally broke a smile, “he’s great. He’s been nothing but dumb all the time. But I think he’s awesome.”

“Awww, looks like someone is falling in love.”

“I’m not,” Baekhyun chuckled, “I just...I like him.”

Tao smiled at the sight of Baekhyun was smiling warmly. He needed to admit that this was the first time he saw the president was acting so soft like this. To say that it was because a boy, was amazing. He clearly could see that Baekhyun really liked that Chanyeol guy. And Tao was also happy for this boy beside him who he already considered as older brother.

“Good, if Chanyeol hyung hurt you, than I will wushu him,” Tao said jokingly.

Baekhyun laughed, “no need to do that, I could hapkido him myself.”

“Right,” Tao joined him laughing. The younger looked out of the window, “it’s already dark, hyung. We should go home.”

“You go. I need to tidy up this document first,” Baekhyun said as he stood up and streched himself out.

“You sure, hyung? I could help you.”

“It’s okay Tao. I don’t want you to come home late,” he smiled at the younger boy and slightly pushed him to walk out from the room. Tao waved at him before he finally closed the door and Baekhyun was alone by himself now.

Baekhyun sighed the tiredness and stress out of him that he had right now. Being a president was hard. People was expecting everything good on you. Baekhyun always needed to look confident, tough, and cheerful at the same time. But don’t get him wrong, he loved being a the student council president. He loved his school, so this was one of the way to dedicate himself to the school.

He finished stuffed all the document in the glass cupboard. He smiled at the now tidy student council room and he looked at his watch, it was already 7 AM. He quickly grabbed his backpack and headed out of the room.

Baekhyun practically ran throughout his way until he reached the school’s gate. He let out a relieved sigh and tried to catch his breath.

He was standing in front of the school’s gate. The school was already empty and it was really dark. There was only one lamp on the street which was also barely lightened up. Baekhyun gulped his fear and started to take his step toward the bus stop.

“Hey”

A very deep voice was heard behind Baekhyun and it made Baekhyun aghast. He turned around really fast until he stumbled backward, “,” he uttered as he tried to balance his body. He looked at the big and blurred figure because of the dim light which stood in front of him.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

Baekhyun knew that voice, and his vision finally adjusted to the light. It was Chanyeol. Baekhyun let out a desprate relieved sigh. He almost chocked by the sudden feel of relief that he also felt his eyes teared up.

His fear turned into anger. Although he felt relief, Baekhyun’s voice was shaking when he spoke, “for God’s sake, Chanyeol, don’t you ever...” Baekhyun stopped for awhile, trying to calm himself down, “don’t do that again.”

Chanyeol walked closer to Baekhyun, “I’m sorry. Are you okay? What happened?”

“Nothing. I’m okay, I just...surprised,” Baekhyun ruffled his hair. “What’re you doing here?”

“I’m waiting for you,” Chanyeol said.

“You waited me?” Baekhyun looked at his watch. “Did you seriously wait for 3 hours?”

Chanyeol grinned and scratch his not itchy hair, “yeah, I really wanted to go home with you.”

“You shouldn’t wait for me.” It was so dark in here, and Baekhyun didn’t like the thought of Chanyeol waited for him in the dark alone. It was really dangerous.

Baekhyun walked to the bus stop slowly and slightly limp. Chanyeol followed him behind and kept his eyes at the Baekhyun who sat at the bus stop’s bench.

Baekhyun looked really restless. Even though the light was poor, Chanyeol still clearly saw how pale Baekhyun’s face was. His body was also still shaking and Baekhyun looked like try really hard to calm his breath.

Chanyeol stared at him worriedly, “Baekhyun, seriously, are you okay? You’re trembling,” he said as he took a seat beside Baekhyun.

Baekhyun gulped and locked both of his hand together to avoid them for keep shaking. “I’m okay,” he answered, still with shaking voice. Damn, why it was so hard to control his own voice?

Looking at Baekhyun’s trembling hands, Chanyeol reached out his hand and held Baekhyun’s. Chanyeol gasped at the older’s cold hands, “Baekhyun,” he said weakly, “I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have come suddenly like that.”

Baekhyun closed his eyes and lowered his head. He remained silent and it started to make Chanyeol more worried. “I’m afraid of dark, I’ve told you that, right?” Baekhyun said in low voice, eyes still shut. “It’s not you fault, Chanyeol. I just had a bad memory about that.”

Chanyeol opened his mouth to ask what bad memory Baekhyun had, but he quickly closed his mouth again. He didn’t want to become an insensitive boyfriend for Baekhyun. He already felt bad enough to make Baekhyun like this. Thinking that his mouth never did a good job, Chanyeol just pulled Baekhyun gently into his embrace.

Baekhyun was slightly taken aback by Chanyeol’s move. Chanyeol hugged him. This was so far Chanyeol’s biggest gesture for him, after all Baekhyun was always the one who initiated the skinship between them.

Baekhyun’s tensed body relaxed as the seconds passed by. He smiled as he realized how big Chanyeol’s arms were, the latter even managed to wrap him fully on his arms. He felt really safe right now that he thought it was stupid of him for being such a scaredy cat there.

Minutes passed by and Chanyeol still protectively holding Baekhyun in his arms. He could feel his boyfriend’s heavy breath already turned to normal. But he didn’t let go or even move because the older was burrying his face on Chanyeol’s neck that it made Chanyeol felt fluster. So he decided to just keep rubbing Baekhyun’s back until he completely calmed down.

Feeling that he had calmed down enough to speak, Baekhyun raised his head and broke the hug between them. He smiled at Chanyeol who still have the worried expression on his face, “you’re not going to break up with me because I was such a girl who afraid of the dark, right?”

Chanyeol let out a sigh of relief that Baekhyun was able to joke around again, “you’re not going to break up with me because my deep voice scared you, right?”

Baekhyun laughed. It was only Chanyeol who can make him like this, scared the hell out of him one second, and made him laugh the next second. “I love your deep voice. Have I told you that?”

Chanyeol was pretty sure that his cheeks were burning red now. He thanked God for the dim light. He could only afford to shake his head.

“Now, you know. But don’t use it to scare me again.”

“No, I won’t. I won’t scare you with any way possible in a million years. I’m so sorry, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol grabbed Baekhyun’s hand again and begged for forgiveness.

Baekhyun’s eyes turned soft, “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know that I would be that scared. I bet I surprised you, too, right?”

Chanyeol nodded, “I was shocked when I saw you teared up.”

Baekhyun looked away and bit his lips. He never meant to show Chanyeol this side of him. However, before Baekhyun could stop his mouth, he began to speak, “when I was a freshman in middle school, I went home really late because of soccer practice.”

Chanyeol blinked, didn’t understand why Baekhyun suddenly told him that.

As Chanyeol kept silent, Baekhyun continued, “I think it was almost 9 PM, and I remember the alley was really dark, and quiet, no one else around other than me.” Baekhyun locked his hands again to stop it from shaking. He could feel the lump was beginning to form in his throat.

Chanyeol’s eyes widened. Part of him knew where this conversation would lead to, but he didn’t want to think about it. No, this can’t be... “Baekhyun, what happened?” he asked seriously, his brows knit deeply.

“I was wearing a headphone, so I can’t hear my surroundings, and—“ he chocked, “the next thing I knew, my body was slammed against the wall by a drunk old man. He was so strong—“

Chanyeol immediately pulled Baekhyun into his hug. He hugged the smaller boy so tight that the latter had trouble breathing but he didn’t care. “Please, please say nothing bad happened, please—“ Chanyeol’s voice was shaking because of anger.

Between Chanyeol’s firm hug and his hard breath, Baekhyun still managed to speak, “I screamed really loud, and I was extremely lucky there were security guards around, and they stopped him before he could do anything to me. I was safed, I’m okay.”

The furious Chanyeol let go of his hug and looked at his boyfriend with darkened eyes. Baekhyun might be okay right now. But, what if Baekhyun was hurt? What happened if something bad happened to Baekhyun? What will happen to Chanyeol? How could Chanyeol handle that?

“Please don’t look at me like that, Chanyeol. I’m okay, now. And I could take care of myself. Besides, I have hapkido,” Baekhyun convinving him.

“You learned hapkido because of this?”

Baekhyun just nodded slowly, and now it was make sense to Chanyeol why Baekhyun looked slightly weird when he asked the older the reason why he learned hapkido.

Chanyeol caressed Baekhyun’s cheek softly, “I know you could take care of yourself. But I swear, Baekhyun, you won’t go through something like that again. I’ll protect you. I promise.” And at that time, Chanyeol was really grateful, although he can’t do any martial arts, at least he was big enough to protect his small boyfriend.

It just hit Chanyeol that someone cheerful and bright like Baekhyun could also has this kind of dark secret. And his heart hurt because of that. But as he saw Baekhyun’s smile started to creep in again, he let out a relieved sigh. At least, Baekhyun was safe now.

Both of them turned their head around when they heard the sound of the bus from afar. “The bus is coming,” Baekhyun said.

As Baekhyun stood up, Chanyeol grabbed his wrist and pulled him again, “I’ll come with you,” he said.

Baekhyun blinked confusedly, “come with me where?”

“To your house, I’ll accompany you”

“Chanyeol, you don’t have to”

“There’s no way I let you go home by yourself in your state right now.” Chanyeol now stood up and waited for the bus to come.

Baekhyun also stood up and tried to yank the taller’s hand, “I’m okay, I can go home by myself.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Chanyeol, I really am ok—“

Chanyeol cut him off, “what if some strangers scared you in your way home, and I’m not there to protect you?”

Baekhyun wanted to argue but he knew that Chanyeol was right. He actually scared to go home alone at night. And before he even could agree or nod, the bus already stopped in front of him. When the bus’ door opened, Chanyeol gently grabbed Baekhyun’s hand and pulled him to hop on the bus.

Chanyeol led Baekhyun to the empty chairs, and let the older sat first before him. As soon as they sat and the bus was moving, they turned silent and relaxed themselves for a bit. The shakes in the bus made Baekhyun sleepy and he was already tired in the first place.

Realizing that his boyfriend was slowly doze off, Chanyeol pulled Baekhyun’s head and let it rest on his broad shoulder. “You’re tired, aren’t you?”

Baekhyun just hummed. He smiled at Chanyeol’s sweetness before he finally closed his eyes. “We get off at the seventh stops,” Baekhyun said lowly.

Chanyeol nodded, “got it. Now, sleep. I’ll wake you up.”

Before Baekhyun completely fell asleep, he wondered why Chanyeol didn’t come to his life earlier.

A/N:

 A little Baekhyun's dark past to tightened the bond between them. I'm so sorry, Baek :(

don't worry, the next chapter will be fun again :D