word count: 1,357w

+

It's a quiet Sunday morning when Baekhyun bursts into the living room, all-smiles and dynamic. He's only like this when something good happens to him, and Chanyeol can attest to that. The last time he's seen Baekhyun like this was when he and Suho got picked as Inkigayo MC’s.

"Guys! Guess what?" he squeals, flailing his arms in a way that resembles how seals do. "I'm going on a musical!"

The dorm almost instantaneously lights up, characterized by the other members' kudos and words of praise and congrats as he gets multiple pats on the back. Kyungsoo, who just finished filming his own movie, asked Baekhyun a question that's loud enough for everyone to hear, "Are you gonna kiss anyone?"

There were teasing oooooh’s from the members, mostly coming from Jongdae and Tao. Baekhyun smiles rather shamefully and squeaks out a small, "Yes."

Kyungsoo laughs at the way Baekhyun answered, and Jongdae whoops. "My baby is finally a man! I am so proud you!" he says, feigning tears and delight. Baekhyun elbows him softly. "Shut up, I'm older than you."

"Alright guys," Kyungsoo cuts in, stepping between Jongdae and Baekhyun. "How about let's eat, to celebrate?"

There are choruses of yes! and i'm starving! as the members follow Kyungsoo to the dining room, one arm draped over Baekhyun's shoulders.

But as Baekhyun sat there and ate, he realized that he heard every member's reactions to his news, except for one. Chanyeol, it was Chanyeol's reaction that he had anticipated the most. Why didn't Chanyeol congratulate him?

The whole day, Baekhyun was bombarded with questions from the other boys. Kyungsoo gave him some tips too, even though he acted in a movie and Baekhyun will act in a musical, and it's quite different. Luhan is excited, since he'll be acting in a movie also. Some have expressed their interest in acting.

"I want to be an actor!" Yixing said, out of the blue and everyone's eyes are suddenly trained on him. "Uh, Yixing?" Jongdae replied, quite hesitant so as to not hurt the older boy's feelings, "You'll probably just forget your lines."

Everyone laughed as Yixing gave Jongdae the stink-eye, Baekhyun found himself laughing along but he realized that something was missing. Moreover, someone was missing.

Baekhyun excused himself from tonight's open forum as he went to his and Chanyeol's room, and sure enough he found him lying on his bed with hands upon his stomach but not really sleeping, Chanyeol's staring at the ceiling, blinking slowly.

He closed the door behind him in a soft way, but Chanyeol noticed. He got up, stared at Baekhyun for several seconds before lying down again.

Baekhyun sat on his bed, the one opposite Chanyeol's. He spoke as he changed into his Pororo pajamas, "Why were you not there?"

Chanyeol merely shrugged, he feels the edge of the bed dip and he stole a glance to find Baekhyun there. "Are you mad at me?"

Chanyeol shook his head, shifting to his side and closing his eyes in an attempt to ignore the older boy. Baekhyun, however, let out a heavy sigh and said rather plaintively, "Why can't you just be happy for me?"

He's overwhelmed with his emotions and he tried not to be, but Chanyeol's lost control of his tone as the words left his mouth, "I'm happy for you. I'm always happy for you Baekhyun, sometimes you just don't realize but I am. I will always be ing happy for you."

Baekhyun's eyebrows are scrunched but then he understood. "Is this about the kiss scene?"

Chanyeol shook his head and buried it farther into his pillow, muffling his sentence, "No, it's not—just, ugh—leave me alone. Go away. I just can't imagine you kissing anyone else, much less a girl."

He knew it. He's known all along, that Chanyeol didn't partake in this morning's celebration because he was jealous. Baekhyun mentally cursed himself for being so dense. In his musical he's going to kiss someone, and it would be his first kiss. Ever, in his whole life. He'd been meaning to give it to his first love, though.

His first love is no one but this idiot named Park Chanyeol.

It's now or never is the running mantra in Baekhyun's head as he shook Chanyeol's legs (his feet are dangling at the edge of his too-short bed). "Chanyeol, Chanyeol."

"What?" Chanyeol asked, head now underneath his pillow. Baekhyun yanked the pillow out of Chanyeol's large hands, who's looking quite intrigued. "Stop being such a baby and face me. I'm gonna tell you something."

Chanyeol helped himself upright and faced Baekhyun. "Alright, fire away."

Clearing his throat, Baekhyun started to speak. "Okay so, you may have heard that the musical requires me to kiss someone," his voice is somewhat quivering, Chanyeol is nodding hastily. "However, that would be my first. You know that full well, we've talked about this before. And you would know too that I would only give my first kiss to my first love."

Chanyeol's staring at him and Baekhyun feels himself tremble under his gaze. He fiddles with the blue friendship bracelet he and Chanyeol share. "So, uh—" Baekhyun doesn't get to finish his sentence as he unconsciously pulls Chanyeol closer, placing a chaste kiss on his mouth. "This is my first kiss," he manages to say against Chanyeol's lips, losing himself in the taste, "and I'm giving it to you."

He pulls away, and he can feel that his cheeks are burning. He sees that Chanyeol's cheeks are tinted pink, too. So are his ears. He laughs at Chanyeol's reaction, whose mouth is slightly agape. "So, are we clear now? You don't have to worry about her anymore, okay?"

Chanyeol smiles, grabbing his pillow from Baekhyun's side. "Okay."

+

It's D-Day of Baekhyun's musical, and he would be lying if he said he didn't practice the kiss scene very well (with Chanyeol, of course, because that runt takes advantage of everything). The whole of Exo are seated at the front row, Chanyeol is cradling a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Jongdae and Jongin are holding up a banner that says Do well, Baekhyun! and Junmyeon has his videocam, ready to record the whole musical.

Chanyeol watched everything until the part where Baekhyun is about to kiss the girl. He forced himself to watch but he failed miserably, closing his eyes and turning away when Baekhyun leaned in closer. Sehun tugged on his arm. "It's gonna be okay, hyung."

After the show ended, the members gathered to meet Baekhyun backstage. Everyone's so enthusiastic, hugging Baekhyun and saying he did well. Baekhyun's a natural, a pro. Everyone's amazed at the skill he'd hidden until now.

There's a buffet backstage and the other members had just started digging in when Baekhyun feels a tall person tap his shoulder. Chanyeol's smiling as he handed in the bouquet. "Congrats, Baek! You did it really nicely, didn't know you had it in you." he winked.

"Shut up, I looked at you before the scene actually happened and I saw that you turned away." Baekhyun replied, faking his disappointment. Chanyeol picked at the hems of his shirt. "Eh, could you actually blame me?"

Baekhyun laughed at the way Chanyeol's too flustered to even look him in the eye right now. He hit the taller boy's arm playfully. "Only joking."

+

"I need to tell you a secret. But don't tell anyone, because then I might have to kill you." Baekhyun said, at 12AM the night before his seventh show. Tonight is his weekly ramen night with Chanyeol.

"What is it?" Chanyeol asked, chewing intently on his noodles.

"When I kiss her, I always think that it's you who's in front of me."

Chanyeol laughed, a tad bit too loudly because Yifan (who's sleeping on the couch tonight) actually went to the kitchen to take a peek at what Baekhyun and Chanyeol are doing, looking quite disturbed. He went back to the living room right after.

"Ha, that must be hard then."

"How so?" Baekhyun queried, eyebrows creased.

"I'm pretty sure I kiss better than her, right?"

Baekhyun almost choked on his noodles.