Chanyeol surprisingly really enjoyed her lunchtime with Baekhyun. It's not that she'd thought it wouldn't be fun, or that he wouldn't be fun, but it was just that when he was at Kris' house he'd been so quiet and that had given her the impression that he wasn't having fun. Maybe she'd expected him to be sullen and defensive, and act like he didn't want to be there at all, like he was texting her just to be polite or something. It hadn't been at the forefront of her mind, just a subconcious worry.

But he hadn't been like that at all. Ok, maybe he'd been quiet and shy, but he'd smiled a lot. His smile is something she will never get enough of. Not in a million years. 

She lounges on her bed, her hair down, and her makeup removed. She doesn't like her face without makeup anymore, it's one of those things where once you start you can't stop. She wonders whether she should text Baekhyun or wait for him to text her. Now that she knows more about him, and his general nature to be shy and hesitant about contact with other people, she thinks she should probably take the first step, but what to say?

In the end she doesn't send anything to him that evening, simply because she has nothing of interest to tell him. He wouldn't want to hear that she broke her curlers, and because she has frizzy hair naturally, she'll have to straighten it. He wouldn't be interested in hearing about her girl troubles, would he? She sighs to herself, texting lengthy complaints to Kris from underneath her duvet cave, the glow from her screen lighting up the artificial darkness.

Come morning she's a little disgruntled, because as she's expected, Baekhyun hadn't said a word to her, and she's beginning to think he doesn't like her at all, let alone as much as she likes him. She's staring at the black screen of her phone as if willing it to light up and vibrate to indicate that she's received a message, but nothing happens of course. Maybe she was staring a little to hard because her mother has managed to sneak up behind her and blow in her ear.

She shrieks, ramming her knee up into the table, and glares as her mum skitters away to the other side of the table, laughing gleefully.

"Why did you do that?" Chanyeol grumbles, pushing her phone to the side and focusing more on her toast. Her mother completely ignores her;

"Are you waiting for that guy you have a crush on to text you?" She asks smugly, confident that all Chanyeol can do is glare at her disparagingly. 

"No," Chanyeol refuses to look up, inhaling her toast and scarpering as quickly as possible. To complement her floral dress, she wears black pumps with a small flower attached to the edge, slipping them on easily in the doorway and slinging her shoulder bag on. The walk to the bus stop is a little chilly, and she regrets not wearing tights but she hopes it will warm up later on the day.

Sat on the bus, she plays with her phone anxiously. What will she do when she sees Baekhyun later? Greet him like usual, she supposes, and recklessly hope for the best. She probably won't see him till lunchtime anyway, she needs to stop worrying. Easier said than done, but she relaxes and stops even thinking about it when she meets up with Kris. Kris complements her hair, which is hanging straight in front of her face. She'd forgotten that she'd straightened it. She wonders whether Baekhyun will like it.

She doesn't see hide nor hair of Baekhyun all day, and she can feel her mood slowly going further and further downhill, and she hadn't exactly started off brilliantly this morning. It occurs to her during her last lesson of the day that maybe Baekhyun is avoiding her? But that doesn't make sense? Perhaps he found her annoying and chatty- she does have a habit of talking too much when nervous. She hates awkward silences, and doesn't understand when people say they like being able to just sit in silence with their loved ones. 

It's when she's heading home witth Kris in tow that she recieves a message that could only be Baekhyun. Kris rolls her eyes at the childlike enthusiasm she displays unlocking it to find out what Baekhyun sent her.

"You should just ask him out and be done with it," Kris complains, then changes her mind, "actually no, then both of you would be insufferable. You should just stay as far away from each other as possible," she continues griping, but Chanyeol isn't listening to her anymore. She's staring at her phone screen in bewilderment. The text she just received is indeed from Baekhyun, but it says 'good morning (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ'  which is strange because it's nearing four o'clock in th afternoon. 

Just as she's considering the causes of this, her phone vibrates again, lighting up in her hand and two more messages appear on her phone, one asking her to meet him at lunch, and the other to ask where she is then nothing more after that. Crap, this is why she hasn't seen him at all today, he must think she's avoiding him! She acts on impulse, finding Baekhyun's name on her coontacts list (baekhyunnie) and doesn't even think before she swipes to the right and the phone is dialing.

Kris looks at her in contemplation, probably having caught on to her problem the moment she did, with her annoying habit of reading her texts over her shoulder, and leans against a nearbly wall while to wait as Chanyeol calls him. 

Chanyeol shuffles her feet anxiously as the dial tone sounds, indicating that at least his phone is on. It rings for what feels like ages but then finally he answers, sounding a little high pitched, with,

"Hello?"

"Baekhyun! I'm so sorry you thought I was ignoring you! I swear I didn't mean for you to think that, because my texting is weird on my phone and I literally only just received your messages, all of them in one go. I'm so sorry I couldn't reply!" 

"Um, ok?" Is all he says, but Chanyeol thinks he sounds less strained, "So you're not just avoiding me?" he chuckles awkwardly,

"Oh, no, no! I wouldn't avoid you, Baekhyun." She confesses. Kris looks on in amusement, arms folded across her chest and one leg bent so her foot is against the wall.

"Oh, that's- that's good," Chanyeol can hear a small smile in the way he says his words, but it's just not good enough. She wants to be the cause of one of those huge smiles she's seen him pull while observing him from a distance, with the glimmering teeth and eyes scrunched up so tight he can't possibly be able to see out of them.

She wants to see that smile often.

"Hey, how about in order to make up for leaving you alone all day, and to prove I'm really not avoiding you we go out tomorrow after school and hang out?"

"Uh-"

"I'll pay for Mcdonald's?" she offers, because she can't afford much more than that. It's then that she realises what she's just proposed; she's just asked Baekhyun out on a date, completely out of the blue. What if Baekhyun not only doesn't like her like that, but just doesn't want to spend that much time with her? She calculates the chances of this ruining their newfound friendship but concludes that they're fairly minimal. She could add 'as friends' on at the end, but that might make her seem like she's trying too hard.

She hear some muffled voices on the other end of the line, and clenches her fist at the suspense. She should learn to control her damn mouth before she says something that could permanently damage her relationship with someone. Specifically Baekhyun, because she's comfortable that there is very little she could say that would offend Kris at this stage.

She looks over at Kris and bites her lip, and Kris shrugs in response, one eyebrow raised. 

"Uh, yes." Baekhyun suddenly says, "um, yes I'll go." Chanyeol breathes a sigh of relief, imagining herself melting into a puddle of goo on the pavement only to spring back to life not a moment later when Baekhyun continues, "i-if you're paying for food, then I-I'll pay for a movie?"

He sounds extremely nervous, and that stutter is cute but worried. He sounded forced, like someone put him up to this,

"Is Jongdae with you?" She asks suspiciously. There's another pause, which only increases her suspicion, before Baekhyun replies,

"Uh, yes, he is. But I still want to do the movie thing! It was his idea, but I still want to do it, ok?" 

"Ok,"

"Good. Um. I'll text you later?" Baekhyun asks, once again reverting back to his shy self. Chanyeol wonders how long it will take until Baekhyun will feel more comfortable around her, comfortable enough to speak freely and not hide from her. Maybe she's intimidating? The way she shouts and behaves like a boisterous little kid sometimes, she can understand why someone like Baekhyun might shy away from her.

"Yes," she asserts, twirling on her heels. She locks eyes with Kris again, who has been inspecting her cuticles for the past few minutes, waiting patiently for her to finish on the phone so she can interrogate her. 

"Bye, then," Baekhyun breathes, and Chanyeol returns the sentiment, the absence of sound when she takes the phone away from her ear is startling. Like she's just stepped out of a dream. A dream where she's got a date with Baekhyun, but that would be ridiculoud, because there's no way he'd ever be interested in a giant like her, right?

"So, sounds like you just got yourself a date," Kris teases, pushing off the wall and wiping the back of her tight black jeans clean of any dust. Chanyeol just stares at her. "Hello? Earth to Chanyeol, you just got a date with your dream guy," 

"I just got a date with my dream guy." Chanyeol repeats mindlessly, much to the evident amusement of her friend, "stop putting words in my mouth! It's not a date," she grumbles, starting to continue walking. They've probably missed a bus by now, but fortunately there is one about every twenty minutes so they won't have to wait long.

They don't speak much at the bus stop, because there are too many people standing around in silence that they know, but as soon as they are safely seated on the bus, Kris starts teasing her.

"You know, I thought you would be happy; you're going to go on a movie date with your future boyfriend tomorrow." She say, in a tone that, to outsiders, may seem conversational, but Chanyeol has known Kris for long enough to hear the underlying mocking beneath her words. 

But is that what's happening, thought? She asked him out on a whim, because she can't control what comes out of , and although she's looking forward to it maybe Baekhyun is only agreeing to it because Jongdae pushed him into it. 

"It's not a date," she says dispariginly, fiddling with her bracelets. Kris does not look impressed.

"Of course it's a date! He offered to pay for the movie, so, ergo, it's a date." Kris explains, as if talking to a child. They debate all the way to Chanyeol's house, Kris some how managing to follow her home without her noticing again. It's not that she minds, it's justthat it can't be accidental, no matter how many times she says it is.

Chanyeol heads up to her room and changes into a simple t-shirt and shorts, not caring that Kris is in the room too. She's seen it before, and even though Kris likes girls, she assures her that Chanyeol is just a friend to her, maybe even a sister. It's nice to have people that close to her. 

Throwing her floral dress into the washing basket, a thought occurs to her; what should she wear tomorrow? If it's a date, then she should wear something nice, but since it'll be straight after school, and they'll be gonig to McDonalds of all places, maybe it should just be pretty casual.  Like jeans and t-shirt casual. Then maybe make it cute by adding one of her many necklaces, she's amassing a collectin, maybe the one with a silver circle and a gemstone studded heart inside.

As if reading her mind, Kris appears over her shoulder as Chanyeol is going through all her jewellery. 

"You don't need to dress up too much, I think. He might pass out or something," she mumbles the last part while walking away and flopping onto her pillows, her words obscured by the duvet.

"What?" 

"Can you paint my nails?" Kris asks innocently, smiling up at her from the bed, "I want superhero motifs, can you do that?"

"Yes, of course," Chanyeol smiles, always liking a challenge. 

Waiting for the first layer of paint to dry, Chanyeol thinks out loud,

"You know, Baekhyun never got to see my hair today." 

"Well, send him a picture of it then, before it goes back to being curly," Kris answers the unspoken question. Chanyeol finishes the second layer thoughtfully, then stands in front of her mirror, telling herself that if she doesn't send them to him, then it won't be any different from any other selfie she's taken (she takes quite a few) and the poses come naturally to her. 

Before she loses her nerve, she sends her favourite one with the caption 'showing you my hair,because you didn't get to see it today ^^' then wordlessly picks up a bottle of nail polish and carries on painting. Kris, for once, has no snarky comment, and is instead watching her with some sort of weird proud expression.

"Stop looking at me like that, it's weird," Chanyeol deadpans.

"Shut up,"

"No. Why were you looking at me like that anyway, all I did was send him a selfie," she suddenly regrets it, curling into an iriate snarl. He's going to think her so superficial.

"Hmm, I was just thinking it looks like you two are already dating."

"Ah! Crap!" Chanyeol jerks backwards, having just made a mistake. She makes a show of cleaning it up, hoping Kris will leave it alone, and she does. For a while, anyway. Until her phone vibrates signalling another text. Thinking it's likely to be Baekhyun's response to her picture, she nervously  hides it from Kris, but she somehow manages to see it anyway.

From: baekhyunnie

as always, you look beautiful (｡･ω･｡)

"If he's not flirting with you, or at least trying, then I will a ," 

"Nice." Chanyeol wrinkles her nose at her crudeness, but sends back a quick 'thankyou >//<'

With her nails done and dry- Kris always likes making Chanyeol do it, she says it's like getting a pro to do it but for free- Kris is free to pester Chanyeol about the details of their date. Chanyeol isn't sure when she started calling it that in her head, but she decides to stop fighting it, after all a date would be a good thing, right?

She texts Baekhyun all through the evening, hammering out the vague ouutlines of the plan and just generally chatting, even after Kris leaves. Chanyeol falls asleep with her phone in her hand, and like to imagine Baekhyun in his bed, doing the same thing. He's be wearing pyjamas- actually no, just pyjama bottoms- and he'd have slightly messy hair, flopping over his eyebrows. 

She begins to imagine him lying next to her, just barely an inch away, and is about to touch imaginary Baekhyun's pinky finger with her own when another text startles her out of her guilty reverie.

From: baekhyunnie

I'm tired ƪ(‾￣o￣”)ʃ talk to you tomorrow (＾∇＾)

To: baekhyunnie

yes ofc looking forward to it :3

Chanyeol turns the lights out, and tries to think of as many possible outcomes of tomorrow's date as possible, ranging from the likely to the pretty-much-impossible. Those ones are the most fun.

-

im so sorry its been like a month

and its 4 am rn literally why am i even awake im sorry for any typos

anyway please comment because i love you