Three

Back when Baekhyun had first realized that he felt deeper for Chanyeol than a friend should, he'd told himself he was crazy. It was stupid and unjust and he knew he'd only get hurt. He had tried to reverse his feelings, going out of his way to avoid the taller and pretending to be asleep during lessons. He'd avoided long conversations and intimacy. 

Unfortunately, that only lasted a week or so. Later attempts resulted in the same manner. Baekhyun slowly learnt the hard way that every time he looked into Chanyeol's hurt and confused eyes his efforts would be tossed out the window along with his sanity. Chanyeol's chestnut eyes were, simply put, the bane of his life, or what he was trying to make of it. 

Now as he stood a distance away from their hill behind a tree and observed Chanyeol like a stalker, he couldn't help but fall in love with the taller male all over again.

 Chanyeol was sitting with his back against the large oak tree, knees pulled to his chest, looking lonely. 

After the burden of having to deal with the awkward conversation with Yifan because the Chinese male had decided it was okay to kiss him (it really, really wasn't okay and Baekhyun was still somewhat fuming), he'd excused himself from lunch and gone looking for his ferret, thereby ditching the rest of his classes for the day.

When he realized he couldn't find Chanyeol anywhere in the orphanage's premises and their friends all said they hadn't seen him, the first place he knew to check for was here - their hill. The slight slope of earth with a large oak probably taller than the slope itself planted right smack in the middle of the bump - the thing they liked to call a hill, their hill. 

He just really didn't expect Chanyeol to look so lost in thought, the ferret's eyebrows drawn together as his chin dug into his knees. He knew how the taller loved to observe people and their weird quirks, so the fact that Chanyeol looked so deep in thought made something inside him pull a weird way. 

Only Chanyeol was able to make him feel things like this, feel like he was feeling melancholic together with the giant. 

After watching the giant for a while more, he hesitantly stepped out from behind his hiding place and tried to make it seem though he hadn't just spent the last half an hour or so observing his best friend slash secret crush. He realized that his efforts at being hidden were for nothing as Chanyeol didn't even seem to notice Baekhyun's presence until the elder plopped down next to him rather heavily. 

"Hey Yeol"

"Hey," Baekhyun didn't miss the look of surprise that splayed across the giant's face for a second, "what are you doing here?"

"Ditching lunch and the rest of my classes, I'd thought that was pretty obvious"

Chanyeol's laugh rang out clear, and for a moment Baekhyun's heart did a little flop and he thought to himself that really after all this time he should have already gotten used to this, but he hasn't, and probably never would. He hasn't decided if that was a good or bad thing yet.

"Where's Yifan?" Chanyeol asked, looking around. 

"Having lunch I guess, why?" Baekhyun answered, trying for nonchalance as his mind raced at the thought of the kiss.

"Oh," Baekhyun wondered if that was relief in Chanyeol's voice, "I thought you guys would be together.. Or something"

The odd tension between them didn't go unnoticed by the smaller male, and he suddenly felt the urge to ask, "Ferret? Is something wrong?" He knew he was purposely ignoring the implications Chanyeol was imposing by the 'or something' but he didn't care, something was bothering his giant and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"No, not really, I just--" Chanyeol broke off with a sigh. 

There was a pause and Baekhyun had a gut feeling he knew what was coming.

"I saw you guys making out" it came out like a breath of air, almost like a whisper.

Baekhyun didn't know why he felt so surprised. He should have known the giant wo