Baekhyun sighed dreamily as he ran his fingers over his laptop screen, tracing Jongdae’s perfect facial features. He frowned as his fingerprints stained the screen, blurring out the image he was admiring. He looked around for something to wipe the screen with, finally settling on the sleeve of his sweater. Jongdae changed his Facebook profile picture earlier today and Baekhyun’s liking it. He liked it a whole lot, but he couldn’t ‘like’ it, could he? That would make it so obvious. He tried to zoom in on Jongdae’s face, but the photo ended up being a blurry, pixelated mess. He sighed. Maybe he should get Jongdae a better phone for his birthday. But then Jongdae would know that he was Facebook-stalking him, wouldn’t he? How else would Baekhyun know when his birthday was?

Oh well. He zoomed out and smiled fondly, appreciating the well-taken selfie.

“Do you know how creepy you look right now?” his roommate, Kyungsoo pointed out.

Baekhyun tried to straighten his face into a more sensible expression but failed miserably. “Look at his arms,” he practically squealed, gesturing at the photo on his laptop.

Kyungsoo got off the bed he was lounging on and stepped over to the study desk separating their beds, which Baekhyun was sitting at. He took one look at the photo on Baekhyun’s laptop screen and snickered. “You’re in love with a bathroom mirror selfie taking self-obsessed prick?”

Baekhyun frowned. “Like you don’t take selfies.”

“Not with a tank top on. And bed hair. And that weird half-smirk. He obviously has an overinflated ego.”

“If you were that hot, you’d take that kind of selfie too.”

Kyungsoo shook his head, realizing how far gone his friend was. He walked back to sit on his bed. “Have you even talked to him?”

“We’re in the same tute.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“We have the same friends.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Baekhyun turned to look at Kyungsoo, annoyance furrowing his brows. “I will, okay? The right moment hasn’t come up yet.”

“So apparently you like him because of his looks?” Kyungsoo asked, resting his back against the headboard and picking up the textbook he had left lying facedown on the bed.

“That, and he’s nice too.”

“How do you know that if you’ve never talked to him?”

“We’ve talked.”

Kyungsoo glanced at him. “But you just said-“

“We have the same friends, remember? When he talks to the whole group, he’s technically talking to me too.”

Kyungsoo frowned. “Huh.”

***

“Oh my god!” Baekhyun exclaimed as soon as he walked into his shared dorm room.

Kyungsoo looked up from the textbook he was studying and raised his eyebrows in question.

“We had lunch together.”

“We?”

“Jongdae and me.”

“That was fast.”

“Well, the whole group was there, but who cares?” Baekhyun moved to lie on his bed and sighed. “He sat across from me.”

“So basically you had lunch with your friends as usual?”

Baekhyun sat up. “Jongdae was there and that’s all that matters. I was looking at him the whole time. I didn’t even realize the others were there.”

“He probably thinks you’re creepy now.”

“Nope,” Baekhyun said, a smug smile on his face. “He said I was cute.”

“He said what?” Kyungsoo asked, impetuously slamming the textbook in his hands shut in surprise.

“He was talking to this international student, I think his name was Yifan or something. They were speaking in Chinese, and then I noticed that they were looking at me, and Jongdae said that Yifan said that I was cute.”

Kyungsoo frowned. “So this Yifan was the one who said that you were cute.”

Baekhyun lied back down on his bed. “Jongdae was the one who translated for me.”

“Okay,” Kyungsoo said slowly, failing to understand his friend’s logic.

***

“Kyungsoo!”

Kyungsoo turned to look at Baekhyun as he burst into the room, seemingly elated beyond words.

“You wouldn't believe what happened. We were doing this assignment today and we were supposed to take pictures for documentation, and Jongdae kept taking pictures of me.”

“Was he supposed to?”

“Well, we were in the same group,” Baekhyun mumbled, enthusiasm instantly dampened. “And he took pictures of everybody else too.”

“You should really tell the whole story instead of trying to mislead me.”

“But! He told me to pose and took a picture of me by myself,” Baekhyun said, a grin back on his face. “I think he likes me.”

“Whoa, hang on. Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?”

“Why else would he take that picture?”

Kyungsoo sighed, conflicted between not wanting to pour cold water on his friend’s excitement and not wanting to set him up for disappointment.

“Maybe you should talk to him and tell him how you feel.”

“I will, when the right time comes.” Baekhyun sat himself down at the study desk, switched on his laptop, and went onto Facebook. “Oh, the photos are up.” He scrolled through the photos before grumbling, “Of course Jongdae’s not in them.”

***

“Guess what?”

Kyungsoo closed his laptop lid and looked at Baekhyun.

“He invited me to stay at his house overnight.”

“Jongdae did?”

Baekhyun nodded. “With the rest of the group, but still. I’ll be spending a night at his house. Can you imagine that?”

“Where does he live?”

“He’s sharing a house with Yifan by the beach. The others wanted to go surfing during the weekend and he invited us to stay over.”

“Do you need help with anything? Do you know what to bring?”

“Yeah, I’ll be alright.” Baekhyun’s phone vibrated and he frowned as he read what was on the screen. “Apparently it’s a day trip now.”

“What happened?”

“Apparently they invited too many people and there’s not enough space for all of us to sleep over.” Baekhyun sighed. “I still get to go to the beach with Jongdae though.”

“The beach is a while away, isn’t it? How are you getting there?”

“Yifan’s driving us.”

“It’s a two-hour drive, right?”

Baekhyun nodded.

“And you’re coming back at night?”

“I guess.”

“Will Yifan be driving you back?”

“I think so.” Baekhyun laughed at Kyungsoo’s concerned expression. “It’ll be fine.”

***

“How was the trip?” Kyungsoo asked when Baekhyun came into their room, looking absolutely exhausted.

Baekhyun frowned. “It’s 3am. Why are you still awake?”

Kyungsoo raised the textbook in his hands. “I need to study for an exam.”

Baekhyun plopped himself down on his bed and closed his eyes, apparently too tired to wash up. “I won’t bother you then.”

Kyungsoo looked at his friend’s sleeping form and smiled. He set aside the textbook he had been pretending to read and got off the bed to turn the lights off. “Goodnight.”

***

“I haven’t told you about yesterday,” Baekhyun said when he woke up the next day, back to his usual cheery self.

“Did you have fun?”

“It was great! Jongdae fried some eggs for me.”

“I cook for you all the time,” Kyungsoo pointed out.

“But that’s different. We were having lunch at his house and he said I wasn’t eating enough, so he made fried eggs for me.” Baekhyun grinned. “I didn't know fried eggs could taste that good.”

“What did you do at the beach?”

“I just watched the others surf. Jongdae looked so good in a wetsuit,” Baekhyun sighed before pushing himself off his bed to grab his laptop. “Maybe they’ve uploaded pictures from yesterday on Facebook.”

“You didn’t take any?”

“No, I didn’t want to be openly ing at him. Not that I could anyway. Yifan kept bugging me the whole day.”

“What did he do?”

“He wanted to sit with me on the beach and chat and take pictures.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “He was being annoying in general.”

“Did you tell Jongdae that you like him?”

Baekhyun shook his head. “It didn’t seem like the right time. Oh!” He turned his laptop screen so that it was facing Kyungsoo and pointed to a photo of Jongdae. “See how good he looked?”

Kyungsoo looked at the thumbnails of the other photos in the album. “Who’s the guy you’re with in pretty much all the photos?”

Baekhyun looked at the screen. “That’s Yifan. Jongdae kept wanting to take pictures of us together for some reason.”

***

“What do you think?”

Kyungsoo looked at the handmade bookmark Baekhyun had placed on the open textbook on his lap before looking up at the familiar grin on Baekhyun’s face. “What do I think about what?”

“Jongdae gave that to me.”

“He made it?” Kyungsoo picked up the bookmark to study it. It was an amateurish, simple pressed flower bookmark.

“It doesn’t matter who made it. He was the one who gave it to me.” Baekhyun snatched the bookmark back from Kyungsoo just as he was about to turn it over. He flumped into the chair at the study desk and rested his head on the arms he draped on the back of the chair. “I think I’m ready to tell him.”

“That you like him?”

Baekhyun nodded.

“When?”

“We have a huge presentation on Friday night. I think I’m going to tell him after.”

“Why then?”

“Because he’ll ace that presentation for sure – he always does – so he’ll more likely than not be in a good mood. He probably won’t be in a hurry since it’s a Friday night. We might even go somewhere with the others to celebrate finishing that presentation so…” Baekhyun trailed off with a single assertive nod. “I think it’s a good time. No, I think it’s the best time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t ask me that,” Baekhyun immediately fretted, apparently far from as confident as he made himself out to be.

“Well, good luck. Whatever the outcome is, at least you tried.”

Baekhyun lifted his head from his arms. “You think he’ll turn me down?”

“Not necessarily. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be too upset on the off chance that he does.”

“You’re so pessimistic sometimes.”

“It’s called being realistic.” Seeing the frown on Baekhyun’s face, Kyungsoo quickly added, “But I hope it works out for you. I really do.”

***

“How did you go?” Kyungsoo asked guardedly when Baekhyun walked into their room on Friday night looking uncharacteristically reserved.

Baekhyun sat himself down on the edge of his bed. “I don’t know.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing.”

“That can go either way.”

“No, I didn’t say anything.”

Kyungsoo shifted to sit on the edge of his own bed so that they were facing each other. “You still haven’t told him you like him?”

Baekhyun shook his head.

“Why not?”

“I couldn’t get him alone.”

“You didn’t even talk to him?”

Baekhyun brightened up slightly. “I did. He said I look good.”

“So why didn’t you tell him you like him then?”

“Yifan was there,” Baekhyun said, before adding in a mumble. “And he kind of said it to the both of us.”

Kyungsoo frowned, catching on to what Baekhyun was skirting around. “He said you two look good together.”

“He was kidding.” Baekhyun scrunched up his nose. “Me and Yifan together is not a thought that I want to entertain.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I’ll wait for another chance for me to talk to Jongdae.”

***

“It was a disaster!”

Kyungsoo put down the thick textbook he was almost done with and watched as Baekhyun collapsed onto his bed and threw an arm over his eyes, sighing heavily. “What was?”

“Jongdae.”

“You told him you like him?”

“No.” Baekhyun sat up on the bed and settled with his shoulders hunched, looking dejected. “Not directly.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t think we’d ever get any time alone so I thought I’d tell him subtly.”

“What did you do?”

“I-” Baekhyun hesitated, apparently embarrassed. “Well, I tried to touch his hand.”

“And he slapped your hand away?”

Baekhyun shook his head. “That wouldn’t have been a disaster. It’d be a catastrophe”

“So what did he do?”

“He got a phone call.”

“You mean he didn’t actually give you the brush off but something came up.”

“Kind of.”

“So why was it a disaster?”

“His phone didn’t ring.”

“In other words, he subtly gave you the brush off.”

Baekhyun slumped back down on his bed and groaned. “It was humiliating.”

“I suppose you’ve given up on him?” Kyungsoo asked, mildly surprised at how well Baekhyun was taking the rebuff.

“How can I give up now? Maybe his phone did ring but I didn’t notice. Or maybe he was just flustered and didn’t know what to do.”

“So you’re going to try again?” Kyungsoo asked, absently returning his gaze to the textbook he had placed on his lap. Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy to deter Baekhyun when he had set his mind to something.

“Yeah. Now I know I shouldn’t be abrupt. I need to think of something slow and subtle. Or maybe being straightforward is better, I don’t know. Something is bound to work.”

***

“Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo turned to look at Baekhyun, who was staring at his laptop in disbelief. It had been mere hours since their conversation earlier that day.

“Jongdae changed his relationship status on Facebook.”

“What?” Kyungsoo walked over to look at Baekhyun’s laptop screen. ‘Kim Jongdae is in a relationship’ was the latest item on his news feed.

“It doesn’t say with who. Maybe it’s a joke? Or maybe this is his way of saying he likes me too?”

Kyungsoo hated to be coldhearted, but it was obvious that the status change was a definite rejection. “You don’t actually believe that.”

“No,” Baekhyun sighed. “Can I hug you for a bit?”

“You don’t have to ask.” Kyungsoo let Baekhyun pull him into a hug as he wondered who would be his shoulder to cry on when his time came, if ever.