“Hey, Baek.” He hums and turns to look at me and I smirk in turn. Good, he’s oblivious. 

“You’re my pet, right?” I say slowly, stepping closer to him. Baekhyun notices the change in my voice and starts backing up slowly too, laughing nervously to cover up his nervousness.

“Ahaha…yeah…uhm… why do you ask?” My smirk grows wider. This is gonna be sweet.

"What in— this is— are you— You can't be serious about this." Baekhyun stumbles over his own words as he blinks in disbelief. 

I smile sweetly and nod. "Yup, you got me. I was just kidding."

His eyes widen in relief. "R-really?! Oh, thank God, I thought for sure I—"

"....as if. I'm totally serious about this, Baekhyun," I interject and kill off whatever hope Baekhyun had in an instant. 

"I hate you."

"Good, because feeling is mutual. Now get on with it." I hurry Baekhyun as he hesitantly picks the lemon pie up in his hands. He looks at me pleadingly, but my eyes are stone cold and he sighs before handing the pie to me. 

"Things would be a lot less awkward if you just throw it at me," he murmurs. 

"Now what fun would that be? Unless..." a smug smile appears and as soon as Baekhyun spots it, he groans and backs away slowly. 

"Me and my big fat mouth."

After 3 successful hits, Baekhyun is screaming his lungs off, as if I'm actually throwing knives at him. I would, but I wouldn't like to be in jail, so I settle in for the rotten tomatoes among the pile we got from the market. 

"How is this even a food fight when I don't own any ammo?!" Baekhyun asks furiously as he dodges a watermelon. "And are you crazy?! That was a freaking watermelon! Do you want me to get a concussion or—"

"Heads up!" Baekhyun doesn't get to finish his sentence as I fling muffins randomly, since he's just standing out in the open without a defence wall to shield himself with. He manages to grab one and takes a bite. "Hey, these are still good! And chocolate flavoured too!"

"Oh, c'mon, Baek, we wouldn't to be able to finish this gourmet anyway, so we might as well put it to good use." 

Baekhyun shoots me a weird look before coming forward and grabbing my arm and dragging me to the kitchen. "Well, if you put it that way, why don't you be smarter and do experiments on them?"

"Because we don't have any chemicals?" I answer dumbly. Of course, know it all Baek laughs and pinches my cheek playfully as I growl. 

"Wanna make a watermelon explode using rubber bands?"

"Yes," I answer immediately. 

The game is simple: we take turns rolling a dice, and then according to the number we get, we have to place the number of rubber bands over the watermelon till it eventually explodes. The loser will have to do an embarrassing dare — I'll kill Baekhyun if he tries anything stupid — and after that, we'll do another stupid experiment and, yeah, you get it. 

The game is surprisingly fun, at the same time as it is dorky, weird, stupid and just plain freaky, but I'm not lying when I say that I'm relatively happy when the watermelon finally exploded. It isn't until the information sinks in and I realise that the watermelon exploded on my turn, which means I lose, and it's really unfair though we did a pinky swear and everything and Baekhyun is dead because the dare he gives me is ridiculous. 

If I die from embarrassment, I don't care what the consequences are but I will drag him to death's door with me. 

Stupid as it sounds, doing all these wacky experiments are really fun. Of course it's not because I'm doing them with her or anything, it's just because I'm smart and can think of fun ways to waste food, okay?

Speaking of which, she lost the watermelon-rubber band experiment. You'd think she'd at least be prepared, but when I told her the dare, she got so exasperated, she started to beg me to change my mind. Of course, that escalated quickly and her 'begging' turned into pulling my arms backwards and ramming her entire foot onto my back, and I swear, she must've at least damaged my spleen because I can't feel anything and that's not normal, even though that's what she calls a 'Thai-styled massage'.

Anyway, the dare is to simply act like Superman. All she has to do is wear a bright red underwear outside — courtesy of Sehun who never cleans up after himself — and basically just go and 'save' one or two people and say 'Superman, away!' every time she goes to help somebody and leaves. And the best part isn't until I manage to get it all on video. But the sad part comes when she sees me with it, and I don't have time for a funeral before I have to proceed with the next experiment.

Halfway through the ramyun pancake experiment, I slink out from the table and prepare my very own prank. I know, I know; I haven't done it in a while and the prank is the very reason why I'm stuck as her pet in the first place, but I really, really, really thought of an amazing one and it's just such a waste to give up this perfect opportunity when no one is around and we have a makeshift buffet with us. 

As quietly as I can — which isn't very quiet, because pots and pans aren't noise proof — I snatch food and various other objects from outside and prepare, all the while feeling lucky that she's so fixated on the experiment, she doesn't even bother with anything else. I'm pretty sure I've taken at least half of what we bought and set it all up for the trap, and she still hasn't noticed anything different. Fantastic. 

"Ohh, bacon, I think it's finally— Baek? Baekkie?" She finally tears her gaze away from the sizzling pancake long enough to turn around and notice my absence. "Yah, Byun Baek, come back here!"

I bite back a snicker and call out as casually as I can. "Uh, sure, but, I'm kinda stuck in the kitchen, so, if you'd be so kind..."

I hear a frustrated groan and the sound of a chair being pushed back as footsteps grow closer to the door. This is really classic —and cheesy and stupid — but we have a huge supply of food and I don't really want to eat all that stuff. I mixed the weirdest blend of...stuff I randomly stole from the kitchen table and put it in the blender. Not everything is mixed thoroughly and there are bits and chunks here and there, but it doesn't matter because either way, it reeks, it's gross, and I'm 101% sure she will freak out once she knows what hit her. 

When she turns the knob, I pull the trigger that would pour the nasty stuff all over her from above (again, really amateur, but it's the disgusting stuff that counts). I must've miscalculated or missed the right timing because the door opens only after my deadly mixture gets spilt, and a disgusting greyish-green and brown substance slowly forms on the floor with a few air bubbles and huge chunks sticking out. (If I didn't think I was crazy, I might consider what I think is a hole starting to appear on the floor but, never mind that.)

The unsuspecting girl takes a step in, and instead of being stuck on the gross thing or coming to a halt because if it, she slips and crashes into the cabinets on the other end of the hallway. As soon as I recover from my shock, I panic and rush to her side. This plan backfired in the worst way possible.

I go over to the scene of the crime and give her a once over, taking in every part of her body that looks like it's bent the wrong way and deciding that asking her would be the easiest thing, I crouch down to her level and stare into her eyes worriedly. Her stare is glazed and unfixed but she somehow manages to see me. Thank God. 

"Ugh...Baek? What the heck did I bump into? It feels like my head it split and," she searches my eyes for a minute and grabs me by the shirt collar as I gulp. "I bet this is your fault, isn't it, you idiot?"

I can't deny what I clearly did and I really feel guilty about it so I nod. She looks like she wants to punch or at least a slap me and give me a stern lecture, but before she can do anything remotely damaging, she gets dizzy and loses her balance and ultimately falters. 

"Hey—" I grit my teeth as I manage to keep her up and not fall down myself. I'm so damn screwed when she wakes up. Wait, scratch that, if anyone comes back and sees this, I'll either be dead or arrested. 

I slap her cheek lightly to wake her up, and whisper shout "Hey, hey, don't die on me, c'mon open your eyes!" between each groan she gives and I even tickle her sensitive spots but she doesn't respond at all after that. Sighing, I realise that with the mess I single handedly (not really) created, I might as well fix things.

I drape her arm over my shoulders and with a puff, I lift her up alongside me and drag her limp corpse body across the kitchen to the living room, and then painfully up the stairs. I refuse to even think about how much pain she'd be in after all that and just pray that whatever punishment I get later on, my life will be spared. But of course, that's highly doubtable.

I lay her down on the bed and turn to leave. Just as I'm about to close the door, I hear a faint voice calling out. 

Not believing my ears, I look back into the room I put her in to see her still and lifeless on the bed, with her eyes shut answer face scrunched up in worry and anxiety. 

Of course. That's wasn't for me. Why would she say that to me anyway?

But as I continue to watch we stir in her sleep, I can't help but feel all the guilt flooding in and before I can stop myself and regret it, I shut the door and sit crossed leg on the floor right next to her. Her brows are furrowed as her face is contorted with what looks like pain and unable to stand the sight of it, I lift a finger and gently smoother the ceases between her brows, making her face relax and go back to normal. 

I smile a little. This reminds me of when we were little and she passed out due to fever but refused to sleep. She always made this face that looked like she was really uncomfortable and me, being the busybody and jobless person I am, would try all sorts of ways to make her relax and fall asleep. It was fun at first, but it became a habit and I eventually became her music box for whenever she had trouble sleeping. 

Unknowingly, I start singing a soft lullaby. Old habits really do die hard. But either way, this is my mess so I have to fix it and make it better, even if it's just a little. 

"I loved her so much, then I lost her. My burning heart weeps..."

As the melody flows out of my lips naturally and gently, I caress her hair fondly, looking back on all those times I've done this for her. Out of all those times, there's never been a time where I've hated doing this. I love singing, and I especially love how it can help sooth her in her sleep. I feel somewhat accomplished. 

But frankly, despite feeling guilty, I like this moment the most, because it's been so long and I realised that I really missed doing this — just staying by her side and comforting her by singing. Simple but enjoyable. 

All I can feel is the throbbing pain in my skull. It hurts, but it's also familiar — like déjà vu or something. It's probably something similar, but also different, and I can't put my finger on it. 

As if on cue, a soft melodious voice drifts into my train of thought. 

All of a sudden, everything comes back to me. The reason why this feels so familiar. 

Baekhyun and I were playing in the park. Even back then, he was a joker and loved to play pranks. We were running around, playing hide and seek — he found me but I refused to give in so I ran and he chased after me. I didn't watch where I was going and stupid me tripped and fell head first into a really hard and rough tree bark. 

I felt dizzy and everything was a blur. I wasn't sure what happened next but before I closed my eyes, my ears were filled with Baekhyun's calls filled with worried. I suppose he might've carried me back — or dragged; we were 6 — and I didn't gain consciousness till I was on my bed, back at home. 

I remember waking up to a soft and sweet melodious tune, right beside me. I turned to see what was making that sound when I got enveloped into a tight hug. Confused, I blinked as Baekhyun repeated countless 'I'm sorry's and 'it won't happen again'. He was sobbing, so it was hard to make out but I got the gist of it anyway. I smiled and hugged him back, even demanding him to sing me a lullaby to sleep, because I secretly loved his singing. 

And he obliged. He didn't grumble or complain and held my hand as he sang me another song, my head with his other free hand. Ever since then, I'd always go to him when I have trouble sleeping, or simply when I wanted to hear his voice but didn't want to make a fuss about it. The excuse was always 'I can't sleep' or just the mere mention of the little scar that had formed on my forehead. It isn't visible unless you look closely, but Baekhyun had been so scared about it growing and turning into a huge scar that he just sang for me until we were in middle school and I started getting annoyed at his countless ridiculous pranks. 

Now that I think about it, even though there were times where Baek would complain like a pain in the neck, he would still sing a song for me and lull me to sleep, never leaving a request unaccomplished. Behind all the stupidity and playfulness of that stupid idiot, I forgot how sweet and thoughtful he really was. I just didn't take the time to see past all his annoying parts. 

I crack my eyes open slightly and another memory flashes past before me. We were 6 again, and I had just woken up from a short nap. I didn't know Baekhyun was beside me, so when I opened my eyes fully, he scared me with a really ugly monstrous mask. I was so scared, I didn't speak to him for a week and ever since then, I was scared of the dark. 

"Oh, you're up. How're you feeling?" This prick. 

Without even answering his question, I sit up and punch him square in the face. Baekhyun falls back and stares at me with bewildered eyes. 

"I'll kill you Byun Baekhyun! I hate you! You're so gonna get it." As soon as the words are out, I jump out of bed and chase the bacon who runs away for dear life. 

Yeah, thanking him can wait.