Concert Hall | 1847

Baekhyun was awkwardly clad in his best go-to outfit – which in his opinion would make fashion critics laugh their intestines out and fashion designers scoff for the silliness, but he trusted his bestfriend enough to not make him look silly to the public's eyes – staring right at Exo̱tikós’ poster, laid out on a huge banner for the public to feast upon and a fanboy like Baekhyun himself to gawk at until his jaw was practically on the ground.

Kyungsoo came over earlier, headed straight for his modest closet, started throwing stuff out and the current situation of Baekhyun's room at that moment was undebatably messy. He pointed out the set he prepared for any special occasions, and Kyungsoo pouted *scoff* pouted *scoff* at him. He simply stuck his tongue out at his friend and quickly picked his choice for the night up to flaunt it on his own petite body.

“Hmm, I approve of the black skinny jeans, but a mere white turtle neck? Seriously, Baek?” Kyungsoo asked as he slumped onto the bed.

Indeed. Kyungsoo had the rights to judge, compared to the clothes his bestfriend brought, Baekhyun's was nothing but innocent. 

“What?” he got defensive, “I heard I look cute in white, especially ones that look fluffy like this,” and he started making puppy-like noises which got the younger one giggling.

“Oh, really? Where did you hear that from? Last winter season? Honey, although you would stand out among the crowd wearing white, but let me remind you and emphasise this, that it’s a rock concert, not some tarot talent show – no offense to tarot idols and fans, I love them to bits – it’s going to be hell in there.” Kyungsoo started rummaging around again and picked out a few things from the pile of mess. “Here, try this instead.”

So, as a conclusion, there he stod, with thin cotton grey v-neck, enclosed by a black asymmetric front-zip wool coat, maroon skinny jeans, high cut sneakers and some accessories. Kyungsoo also styled his hair with some – thank God – fruity smelling gel that seemed to give his hair some ‘sparkly effect’ and finally added freaking eyeliner on his eyes. Baekhyun’s tears rolled at the first attempt and he actually received a headlock from Kyungsoo for that.

What? That was my first time and if it wasn’t for the concert, I wouldn’t have let him have his way.

“Soo, we’re not dreaming, right?” he asked as they keep staring at the poster together.

A stinging pain invaded his cheek as Baekhyun jumped away from the source.

“Yah, Do Kyungsoo! That hurts!” he half-shouted and Kyungsoo gave Baekhyun the I’m-not-guilty look.

God, I really want to smack that cute face.

Having wasted more time than necessary, they both entered the place and handed in their tickets. Kyungsoo booked his earlier on, way before Baekyhun even knew about the concert and he smiled sheepishly at Baekhyun.

“We might get separated for this. Whatever happens, we’ll wait for each other at the poster we were staring at a few minutes ago when the concert ends. I might be a little late, who knows. Promise me, okay, Baek?” Kyungsoo said as they are directed into the concert hall.

Baekhyun nodded his head a few times and suddenly they came to a halt. Kyungsoo turned left and entered his section and as Baekhyun was about to follow, the guy with the scary face said, or rather mumbled, “your stop’s not here.”

Baekhyun blinked a few times in confusion and scurried forward to follow the guy to the front. He was led deeper into the hall, at the part where he could see the stage appearing larger than life before him. He thought that Kyungsoo has a good spot awhile ago, but, there he was, eyes bulging at the VIP SECTION in bold, capital letters.

Now, you’ve got to be kidding me?! 

He was practically at the front row. Baekhyun settled himself at the located section and received a katalk from Kyungsoo. He fanboyed by himself and told the other that he was at the front row section and Kyungsoo is probably typing a reply of about a few miles per second. He was just being a squishy, jealous idiot. How cute. Baekhyun missed the opportunity to reply to Kyungsoo’s chat when the room dimmed abruptly and at that exact moment, the masked appearance of Exo̱tikós’ lead vocalist caused the crowd into thunderous cheering and Baekhyun found it enjoyable as he joined in with the crowd and chanted the lead vocalist’s stage name. Speechless, Baekhyun found himself shouting incoherent words towards the band performing. There it was again, those few seconds when he thought that the piercing brown orbs of the lead singer met his own pair of dull chocolate ones. It felt like as if the attention was his and only his.

Thank you, Creepyeol! I owe you this one!

As the performance resumed, Baekhyun was stuck in between a man who has his arms raise up high and – God forbid he has smelly armpits, cause Baekhyun is under the said area – and a lady whose racks were outrageously huge; and that was Baekhyun being nice with his vocab.

Gradually, the ever-boisterous crowd was hushed into silence as the band stopped playing and only the lone sound of guitar could be heard. Could it be a ballad? Ahh, now that’s more of my cup of tea. There were just simple plucking of the D, A and F# chords initially, yet, it perfectly captured everybody’s attention. A deep alto voice weaved in with the guitar and a single soft glow of the spotlight focused on the half-masked man now sitting comfortably on the chair.

Well I try to talk but I can't,
My soul has turned to steel,
This happens every now and then,
When I try to tell you just how I feel.

So if you ever love somebody,
You gotta keep them close,
When you lose grip of their body,
You'll be falling.

'Cause I'm falling,
Deeper in love, in love,
In love.

“Eh, weird, he’s singing a ballad? Love song, even?!” A voice among the crowd commented and Baekhyun who was never present in Exo̱tikós’ previous concerts didn't know what the big deal was about, but he was learning to love the song as it continued to roll out of Phoenix’s chapped lips, not that he noticed anything. He even thought that he heard a few muffled weeping all around him. Closing his eyes to relish the moment, he opened them back to catch a glimpse of his favourite singer once again. But much to his amazement, Phoenix was looking right back at him. 

All Baekhyun wanted to do at that moment is to perform a gymnast’s back flip, a dancer’s krumping and a ballerina’s grand jéte just from the thought of meeting eyes with the lead vocalist, but oh well, that only happens in his mind; a place where he could graciously do all of the said things with perfection.

He kept their gazes lock, and at the spur of the moment, Baekhyun had the wildest monologue of all his teenage life: The song is meant for me.

At the end of the concert once the band members bowed to thank the fans for being an awesome crowd and for coming, Baekhyun questioned that is there even a possibility for him to fall deeper than falling in love with Phoenix.

 ヽ(^o^)丿

Seoul High School | 0733

Baekhyun sighed as another torturous morning rolled in in the form of school plus mean girls who were currently standing just a few feet away from him, glaring visibly and how he wished he could poke at their googly-fake eyes. But, no, they were just a waste of time and space and undeniably oxygen, so Baekhyun opted into ignoring them. While he took out his stuff from his full-of-crap locker, his thoughts were claimed by a certain half-mask lead singer and he thought that he should thank Creepyeol for the awesome ticket. Suddenly, his name was called out by the unusually deep baritone voice from the end of the hallway. Speak of the devil. The two girls who were standing close to him decided to ‘greet’ Creepyeol sooner than Baekhyun and one of them straightened her leg out towards the running giant.

An unmannerly fall occur added with extra rolling on the floor – no, not like a buffalo – and the girls laughed maniacally and left the scene as if nothing happened. Of course Baekhyun was angry, but the eagle-spread boy below him caught his ankle just in time to stop him from chasing after the girls. In a heartbeat, he dropped down on his knees to level himself with the tall boy and poke his cheek when the other tall boy laid still, eyes closed.

“Hey, you okay, Chanyeol-ssi? Are you hurt?” Baekhyun tried asking but Creepyeol kept his mouth shut tight.

A little frustrated, Baekhyun tried poking his waist next which earned himself a loud laughter that rang melodiously in Baekhyun ears.

Creepyeol sat up; Baekhyun’s hand still in Creepyeol's large ones, which he captured a few seconds ago from continuing their ministration on Creepyeol’s sensitive waist, and replied with a goofy grin, “I’m fine, silly. I just tripped on my own too-long-for-their-own-good legs,” and hoisted himself up, pulling Baekhyun up with their still clasped hands.

When Creepyeol released his hand, he started a mini chicken dance which Baekhyun can’t help but to end up in tears of laughter at. Baekhyun couldn’t stay angry at Creepyeol’s selflessness for too long, and in the end, Creepyeol’s laughter mashed up with his when he finally stopped his silly little dance.

As they continued walking, Baekhyun spoke up, “hey, thanks a lot for the ticket yesterday!” Baekhyun tilted his head forward and smiled at Creepyeol.

“Ah, it’s nothing,” the other replied and ruffled his flat honey brown hair and that was the exact moment Baekhyun saw a little bit of blood oozing from the other boy's palm.

“Yah, you’re bleeding!” His voice raised a little as he pulled Creepyeol’s hand to inspect it and looked up again to check if there were any other bruises or cuts. Then, Baekhyun saw that the fall caused his blazer a little torn patch.

“Oh gosh, look, even your uniform got scraped,” and his fingers drew themselves closer to the hole when Creepyeol flinched away together with his hand.

“I’m fine, Baekhyun-ssi. It’s nothing, really,” Creepyeol replied and brought his open palm up to his mouth to on the wound.

Wait, what?! If Baekhyun said that he is not affected by the action, then, he was a downright pathetic liar. It gave him shivers as his eyes followed the male’s tongue; dancing lightly on the cut, and when their eyes caught looking at each other, Baekhyun saw the change behind the usually dull russet irises. They were different, sly and naughty even, with a little hint of mischief. He looked away quickly from the intense glare. He bet that no one in the school had really seen Creepyeol's eyes before. Then his eyes caught on another peculiar thing about Creepyeol. Right there, in front of his eyes, was a slip of an inked skin?! He could have sworn that the hole on Creepyeol’s uniform just revealed an alternative part of him that Baekhyun didn't know of. Or perhaps, was scared to admit to.

“Ugh, tastes like metal,” and a shiver appeared on Creepyeol’s body which brought Baekhyun's attention back to his scratched palm. The blood was slowly crusting, but still, Baekhyun felt sorry for him. That, and at the thing he saw a few seconds ago. The tattoos, somehow, at the back of Baekhyun’s mind, seemed familiar.

Where have I seen them before? Those exact tribal patterns.

Baekhyun thought that he could at least try asking the other about what he thought was tattoos on Creepyeol’s arm, but his train of thoughts was disrupted when Creepyeol cut the silence.

“What’s wrong? You look pale,” he said as he brought his hand down and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

“Eh, it’s nothing,” Baekhyun replied all too quickly, both of his hands up in defense.

It can’t be, but his elbow... If only I could see better.

“So, how was the concert yesterday? You liked it?” Baekhyun noticed that his voice changed, a few octaves lower perhaps, and he didn't know why, but it just got his heartbeats increasing.

The only thing that came out from Baekhyun’s mouth is a short, “huh?”

“Was it good?” Creepyeol asked again and this time, Baekhyun answered him better than the first time.

“Ab-absolutely. It was a-amazing!”

Did I just stutter or did I just f_ucking stutter?! But why does it feels like he’s asking like it was HIS concert? Calm your , Baekhyun. Act human, I repeat, act human.

Baekhyun cleared his throat and dropped his gaze from the other male beside him as they kept on walking.

“It was really great, Chanyeol-ssi. In fact, I really enjoyed myself. Although rock could be overbearing at times, but the final ballad was really beautiful. It felt like as if the lead singer was singing the love song just for me.”

Baekhyun smiled to himself at the thought of last night’s memory and his worst fears came to life as he felt the warm blush spread on his cheeks like a silly schoolgirl.

“That song is for you, Baekhyun-ssi,” Creepyeol confirmed and Baekhyun almost tripped on thin air.

Here is the second chapter. Do leave comments. I love reading them, and sure as hell would reply cause I am forever alone. Thanks for subbing ByunSuGoGi, ami_utami, baecon_byun ^^