“Your laugh is really annoying, but your smile makes up for it. I hope these chocolates make you smile. Love, your secret admirer.” Jongdae snorts as he throws the bag of Hershey’s kisses with a pink sticky note attached to it at Baekhyun, and he successfully hits him in the arm.

“Let me see!” Chanyeol squeals from where he’s lying upside down in the recliner, sending messages to someone under the pretense of “studying.”

“No!” Baekhyun pouts and shields the candy from his friends. “They’re my secret candy, and both of you will just steal them!”

Jongdae rolls his eyes and cackles, “Well, duh. I’d steal them if you bought them yourself, but I’m really going to steal them since I know they’re from your ‘secret admirer.’” He emphasizes his sarcasm with finger quotes.

“How long have you been getting these type of gifts, Baek?” Chanyeol asks without removing his attention from his phone.

“Since I was switched into that sociology class at last minute. So about three weeks.” Baekhyun nonchalantly opens the bag of chocolate and lets the first piece melt in his mouth.

“So you think your secret admirer is in that class?”

“Well,” Baekhyun pauses so that he can unravel the foil covering the chocolate, “that’s the only guess I have.”

“Do you have any guess of who it might be?” Jongdae asks as his grabby hands reach for Baekhyun’s well-protected chocolate.

“No, not really.”

“Do you want to know?”

Baekhyun looks contemplative for all of two seconds before laughing, “No, not really. Not if not knowing gets me more candy.” He shoves three chocolates in his mouth and smirks at Jongdae, only to realize he never removed the foil, causing him to spit them out with a disgusted frown.

-

“Most of the time when you open your mouth to speak, I ask myself why I like you, but then that one out of a million chance that you say something intelligent keeps me reeled in. Here’s a pack of Swedish Fish so maybe you can be as hooked as I am. Love, your secret admirer.” Yixing, Baekhyun’s table partner in sociology, picks up a large bag of candy with a pink sticky note attached to it and reads the note aloud with a confused expression as Baekhyun sits down beside him.

“Oh, I wonder how he found out I like Swedish Fish.” Baekhyun offhandedly says as he pulls out his phone to take a picture of the large bag of candy; he sends it to Chanyeol and Jongdae with the message, “we’re having fish for dinner tonight. hope you don’t mind​.”

“Woah,” Yixing says, his eyes still confused, “he? Secret admirer? You have a secret admirer?”

“Yep,” Baekhyun answers simply, waiting for his data to finally turn on so that his message will send.

“Okay…” Yixing says slowly and clears his throat. “So, how do you know it’s a guy?”

“Come on Yixing,” Baekhyun says as if it’s the easiest thing in the world, “what girl would insult me like that?”

Baekhyun hears a girl named Irene say, “I would!” from the seat behind him, so he turns around and glares at her before returning his attention to Yixing.

“I see…. So, is it someone in here?” Yixing asks as he stares at the 3.5 pound bag of Swedish Fish.

Baekhyun scans the room, and not seeing anyone looking directly at them or even paying attention to their conversation, Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders. “I think so, but no one in here seems like they would do something like this, so I don’t know.”

“Well, whoever this person is, they must really like you. This bag of Swedish Fish alone could go for more than 18,000 Won.”

Baekhyun looks at Yixing strangely before picking up the bag of candy and almost whining when he realizes how heavy the bag is. “How do you readily know that information?”

Yixing pouts cutely and looks away from Baekhyun when their professor walks into the lecture hall. “I like Swedish Fish, okay?”

-

“I’m done with my puns because they make me feel as dumb as you probably do every time our sociology professor calls on you. But hey, even though he doesn’t like you, I do. Love, your secret admirer.” Baekhyun reads the note attached to a bag of Smarties, and his entire music composition class (the fifteen of the them) burst out laughing.

“Does your secret admirer only insult you?” Yixing asks with a wide grin on his face as he looks over a sheet of music.

Zitao, still wheezing from laughter, snickers, “He still made an awful pun: he called you dumb and gave you smarties! Isn’t that hilarious?”

“How do you know it’s a guy?” Jonghyun asks, genuinely curious.

“I just do, okay?” Baekhyun snaps back, only to see Jonghyun roll his eyes at his attitude and ignore him. He hears Yixing explain to Jonghyun the reason that Baekhyun knows it’s a guy, and when he hears Jonghyun snort, Baekhyun purses his lips and looks at the bag of candy in his hands.

“Do you know who it could be?” Kyuhyun asks from beside Jonghyun.

“Isn’t that the point of being a secret admirer? To not know who they are?” Changmin simpers as he nudges Kyuhyun.

“I think he’s in my sociology class, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.”

“Kyungsoo,” Yixing calls to a boy dressed in dark clothing sitting a few chairs apart from everyone else, “you’re in our sociology class. Do you have any idea who Baek’s secret admirer could be?”

Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow and replies monotonously, “No idea.”

“Kyungsoo, you’re always so lonely. Don’t you like someone?” Joonmyun teases and moves to pinch Kyungsoo’s cheek, but one glance at Kyungsoo’s glare makes Joonmyun pretend like he never moved his hand at all.

“Nope,” Kyungsoo emphasizes his disinterest in the conversation with a pop of the last syllable.

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t like anyone,” Kyungsoo grits.

“Well, what are you writing on those pink sticky notes? Love notes?” Yixing grins and writes something down on his blank staff paper.

For barely a second, Kyungsoo freezes and and looks completely lost, until he returns to his cool manner, though he subconsciously averts his vision to Baekhyun before coldly replying, “Music theory. Which is what we should be doing in here, you know.”

After Kyungsoo’s input, the class resumes its normal conversation about music theory and the elements of instrumentation, and fifteen minutes later, Baekhyun turns to Yixing and discreetly asks, “Kyungsoo is in our sociology class?”

Yixing gives him an unimpressed stare and returns his attention to the song he’s writing, leaving Baekhyun to wonder just how long Kyungsoo has been in their class. Maybe he’s a late transfer like I was, Baekhyun thinks. When he looks up from the handwritten sticky note on his candy, he catches Kyungsoo staring at him, and as soon as he meet Kyungsoo’s eyes, the other looks away in a hurry. Baekhyun looks at the pink sticky note, at Kyungsoo, back at the note, shakes his head, and picks up the sheet music Yixing was looking at earlier.

-


“The other day I saw you hanging out with your friends; I like to think you’re not as stupid and embarrassing as they are, but somehow I know you are. And, for some reason, I’m alright with that. Love, your secret admirer.” Chanyeol steals the 4.5 pound bag of Mike & Ike’s and reads the note while looking extremely offended. “Baek, if you ever end up dating this ‘secret admirer’ guy, you won’t be able to stop me from saying he’s a total .”

“Aw, is Chanyeol hurt?” Jongdae mocks, steals the bag of Mike & Ike’s, and pours them on his empty cafeteria tray.

“I swear, you’re the person who actually ends up eating all my candy,” Baekhyun mutters as he takes some yellow pieces off of Jongdae’s tray.

“That’s not true,” Jongdae defends with a mouth full of candy.

“You ate half of the Swedish Fish in two hours,” Baekhyun deadpans.

“Not like you were going eat them.”

“No, but seriously, Baek,” Chanyeol runs a hand through his hair and grabs a handful of Jongdae’s candy, “how long are you going to let this continue? What if you’re breaking some eighteen-year-old boy’s heart?”

Baekhyun looks at Chanyeol amusedly and says, “I appreciate you having concern for my admirer; however, I doubt that I could break his heart. I mean, you’ve read his witty statements; he’s cold as ice!”

Both of Chanyeol’s eyebrows raise when he asks, “Is that your way of admitting that you like him?”

Baekhyun sighs and rolls his eyes before taking more candy off of Jongdae’s tray, “I like the attention and his wit. I hardly know the guy!”

“So you have an idea of who he may be?” Jongdae stops shoveling Mike & Ike’s into his mouth long enough to ask.

Baekhyun looks around the university’s cafeteria, and he sees a few distinct faces from his sociology class, including Kyungsoo, with his ever present annoyed expression, sitting with his friends while writing on sticky notes. Baekhyun shakes his head. “No, not exactly.”

-

Over the next two weeks, Baekhyun receives nine gifts from his secret admirer, whose identity he still hasn’t cracked.

He had suspicions that it was Kim Jongin who sits beside Do Kyungsoo in their sociology class, but upon further research (and not knocking when he was in his and Chanyeol’s dorm room), Baekhyun knows that Jongin is interested in someone, and it’s definitely not him.

Baekhyun even got a little desperate and thought that Irene was messing with him, but when he jokingly asked her whether she bought him a value size box of pop rocks (with a note that said, “I’m proud that you finally passed a pop quiz. Are you studying harder for me? Love, your secret admirer.”), she laughed in his face and said that she wouldn’t waste any money on him, especially not candy money.

Three days later, Baekhyun looks around the room, completely puzzled after he walked into the lecture hall to see a 20-pack of nerds with a customary pink sticky note. “Good job, you nerd. Love, your secret admirer.” Yixing reads the note and scoffs, “What’s this one about?”

“He called me a nerd,” Baekhyun slowly says, still looking around the room for the culprit.

“I know that. What, because of your good test score yesterday?” Seeing Baekhyun shrug his shoulders, Yixing mutters, “How can he call you a nerd if you can’t even figure out who he is?”

Baekhyun grabs Yixing by the wrist and stares at him before whispering, “You know who he is?”

Yixing gently removes Baekhyun’s hand from his wrist and chuckles, “I’ve known who he is for nearly two weeks. It’s really obvious; you’re just not paying enough attention.”

Baekhyun groans and slams his head down on his desk, eliciting an, “Are you alright?” from neighboring classmates. After he lifts his head and rubs a sore spot on his forehead, he hears someone to his right mumble, “That’s your crush, Kyungsoo. Isn’t he a keeper.”

“To be fair, you date his imbecile of a best friend.” Baekhyun whips his head to his right and sees Do Kyungsoo talking to the boy right beside him, who Baekhyun recognizes at Kim Jongin, Chanyeol’s newest boyfriend. Piecing together what Kyungsoo and Jongin said, Baekhyun notes that Jongin is dating the best friend of Kyungsoo’s crush, and halfway into analyzing the situation, Baekhyun wonders why he’s so interested. He gasps quietly when he realizes that he’s not only interested because Kyungsoo (and his neverending wit) intrigues him, but he’s also interested because Jongin is dating Chanyeol, who is the best friend of Kyungsoo’s crush….

Once he finally realizes who his secret admirer is, Baekhyun slams his hand down on the desk and cowers a bit in pain. He looks at Yixing as if he has uncovered the world’s secrets, and seeing the astonished look in Baekhyun’s eyes, Yixing murmurs, “Finally.”

-

“You’re an airhead for not talking to me personally. Love, your secret admirer.” Kyungsoo reads the pink sticky note, picks up the box of airheads, and looks around the relatively empty lecture hall. He shrugs his shoulders, assuming that someone placed a gift on the wrong desk. Jongin walks in a few minutes later, and Kyungsoo asks if Chanyeol meant to give him a box of airheads. When Jongin shakes his head and looks at Jongin strangely, Kyungsoo sighs and picks up the box from where he had placed it beside his backpack on the floor. Jongin’s face scrunches up in excitement over the ‘secret admirer’ note on the box, but Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and tell him to be careful with how often he hangs out with Chanyeol because it’s obvious that he’s catching his stupid disease.

After the lecture ends, Kyungsoo quickly packs his stuff only for another body to be blocking his path to leave. “Excuse me,” Kyungsoo tersely says.

“Woah, wait,” Baekhyun says, grabbing Kyungsoo’s wrist. Kyungsoo sees Baekhyun’s friend Yixing standing in the background, watching the scene unfold, and he rolls his eyes and snatches his wrist back from Baekhyun.

“What do you want?”

Baekhyun stares at him for a few seconds before quickly saying, “What do I want? What do you want? Why have you been leaving me the ‘secret admirer’ messages if you don’t want to talk me? All you had to say was, ‘Hi, I’m Kyungsoo. I’m the witty kid in your musical composition and sociology classes. I think you’re cute and funny. Let’s go out on a date!” Baekhyun finishes his rant, slightly panting.

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes and lifts an eyebrow, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Baekhyun looks like he had a response lined up until Kyungsoo said what he did, causing Baekhyun to quickly retort, “What?”

“I. Have. No idea,” Kyungsoo smugly drags out his words, “what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah you do,” Baekhyun assure Kyungsoo (and himself). “You’ve been leaving me cheesy candy puns on my table for more than five weeks!”

“No I haven’t,” Kyungsoo stares at Baekhyun like he has grown two heads. “Why would I buy you candy?”

“I-but. You- and Jongin!” Baekhyun sputters.

“What about me and Jongin?” Kyungsoo singsongs, which stuns Baekhyun that Kyungsoo possesses the quality to change the pitch of his speaking voice that much.

“You were talking just yesterday about who you both like! And he dates Chanyeol, and you said that Jongin dated ‘his’ best friend, ‘his’ being me! I’m Chanyeol best friend.” Baekhyun exasperatedly says.

“Though I appreciate your skills in deductive reasoning, you’re wrong. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Kyungsoo pushes past Baekhyun ever so slightly, only for the other boy to reach after him again with a look of determination on his face.

“You’re sure that you’re not my secret admirer?” Baekhyun asks, slowly enunciating each of his words.

“Positive.”

Baekhyun scratches at the back of his neck and mutters, “So, yeah this is awkward. I’ll just go.”

Kyungsoo sighs and looks at Baekhyun expressionlessly. “You’re an airhead, but right now, I’m being the airhead. Prove to me how much of an airhead I am by taking me on a date.”

“Wait, what?” Baekhyun does a double take and swears he sees the twitch of a smile on Kyungsoo’s lips.

“Take me on a date. Isn’t that what you wanted to ask me in the first place, ‘secret admirer’?” Kyungsoo mocks and finally walks past him without turning back.

“Okay! I’ll set it up and let you know!” Kyungsoo hears Baekhyun scream from the lecture hall, and he giggles to himself before he feels someone wrap an arm around his shoulder and his usual scowl returns.

“Kyungsoo, why did you lie? You were the one who wrote the notes! You even got me to put the gifts on mine and Baekhyun’s desk table.”

“I know this Yixing,” Kyungsoo says tonelessly, though he feels his smile returning again, “but Baekhyun doesn’t have to know that.”