Part 1: Before

It was four days before, and I never saw it coming.

::Monday::

The scent of rain was always rather familiar, but it seemed more like a challenge to catch onto the scent of snow. The usual gloomy weather, sharp winds, and gray, cloudy skies didn’t occur before the unexpected snowfall, so everyone was surprised by the sudden appearance of the icy flakes. Even though no one saw it coming, no one cared anyways.  If there was snow, everyone was bound to embrace it without question. Let there be snow.

Chanyeol couldn’t contain his excitement as he stared out of his window, barely containing a (manly) squeal as the small fluffs of white gathered on the bottom of his windowpane. Chanyeol bolted out of bed and pulled on the first pair of clothes he could find, stumbling as he tried to pack up his books and slip on his boots simultaneously. Without even running a comb through his wild, auburn hair, he slid down the stair rail impatiently, still tugging his shirt over his head, and hastily shouted “good morning” to his mother as he took her toast out of her hand and shoved half of it into his mouth, stopping only to pull on his jacket and a scarf per his mother’s request, before he shot out the front door with his backpack flailing behind him.

At the sight of his white covered lawn, Chanyeol stopped quickly, beaming at the snow covering the ground. He took two steps forward, laughing quietly at the soft crunch of snow underneath his boots as his breath escaped in a visible little wisp. As a large smile slowly spread across his lips, Chanyeol sprinted to the park near his house. When he stood in the middle of the field, he paused and held up his hand to catch a few snowflakes in his gloved palm as he stared into the sky with that amazed smile on his face, watching the small fluffs of snow flitter to the ground around him. He held out his tongue to catch some of the cotton fluffs in his mouth, but he was suddenly taken out of his paradise when something large burst on the back of his head.

“Hey!” Chanyeol shouted as he turned around angrily, greeted by a laughing boy, who threw a small snowball upward and caught it.

“Oh, sorry,” the boy yelled back between a few suppressed giggles, “I didn’t see you there.”

Chanyeol’s frown instantly brightened at the sight of his best friend.

The brunette was cloaked in a sweater underneath a large snow jacket and was wearing boots that looked two sizes too big. A hat covered half of his head but was leaning over one of his ears too much, and a large, bright smile spanned across his pale face, matching his sparkling, bright brown eyes. Chanyeol laughed a bit at his appearance. The older boy’s mother was usually overprotective when it came to being in the snow, but from the way his scarf was barely draped over his neck and looked like it would fall off any second, it appeared as though he had run out of his house without allowing his mother the time to finish burying him in sweaters and jackets.

It was always like this. Baekhyun was always like this. Seeing Chanyeol was much more important than being warm.

Chanyeol wiped the snow off his jacket as he yelled back, “What are you doing here?”

Baekhyun smiled. “It’s snowing. First snow of the year – it’s a miracle in December!”

Chanyeol scoffed and replied with a playful grimace, “It’s not even the end of November, you butthead.”

Baekhyun’s laugh made Chanyeol’s ears tingle. “Either way, it’s much earlier than usual, and since it’s the first snow of winter, and it’s actually sticking, I thought we could have a surprise snowball fight.” Baekhyun shrugged nonchalantly as he spun around, looking like a chubby, awkwardly animated penguin because his jacket was too thick and it seemed way too hard to spin in those boots. “It’s less of a fight though since it seems so one-sided. It’s so obvious that I’m going to win.”

“Oh really? You think so?!” A smirk appeared on Chanyeol’s lips as he scooped up some snow and ran off in Baekhyun’s direction, screaming at him, while Baekhyun shrieked and dashed away from him.

Snowballs were thrown from the left and the right in a heated passion, along with words ranging from sarcastic love remarks to playful cursing. When Chanyeol finally caught up to Baekhyun (which Baekhyun claimed was only because he couldn’t run correctly in his shoes and Chanyeol’s legs were way too long), he rammed into him from behind, forcefully wrapping his arms around the boy’s waist as they both fell into the snow and rolled down the hill, laughing together.

At the bottom of the hill, Chanyeol released his hold from Baekhyun and sat up, leaning over him as he laughed and retrieved Baekhyun’s hat, which had fallen off near the boy at the end of their tumble, and he adjusted it over his own ears. Baekhyun looked up to Chanyeol’s towering frame as Chanyeol’s hands framed both sides of Baekhyun’s head, and he chuckled softly as he pulled the hat off and tugged on Chanyeol’s ears. Chanyeol smiled down to the boy and flipped his auburn hair back as he softly brushed some snow off the brunette’s cheek. Baekhyun’s cheeks were tinted pink from the cold, and his hair was tousled, brown strands messily lying in contrast with the bright white snow. His bright eyes sparkled as he looked up to Chanyeol, whose nose was only a few inches away from his own. They stayed in that position for a few seconds before Chanyeol opened his mouth to speak.

“You idiots, what are you doing at the bottom of the hill?!”

Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun froze at the interruption as they glanced up and noticed Jongin sliding down the hill, with Kyungsoo carefully waddling behind him. Baekhyun pushed Chanyeol off of him, making him fall backwards into the snow. Baekhyun patted his arms as he stood up and waved to his friends.

“You guys should come play with us!”

Kyungsoo replied sternly, “It’s Monday, you dorks. We’re going to be late to school.”

Baekhyun groaned as he fell back on his back and made snow angels. “Forget school – it’s snowing. Don’t ruin my day.”

Kyungsoo stood over Baekhyun and frowned. “Come on, you two. You don’t want Mr. Kim yelling at you again, do you?”

At the mention of their devilish math teacher, Baekhyun glanced upward with a smirk on his face. “What, do you mean the mathinator?”

Chanyeol chuckled as he propped himself up one an elbow and added, “No no, you have to say it like...” his voice dropped two octaves. “The Mathinator.” The two sprawled out across the snow, laughing and snorting at the nickname, completely ignoring Kyungsoo’s unamused smirk. Chanyeol slapped the snow, cackling loudly as he barely wheezed out, “What is he – some lame comic book villain?”

Kyungsoo’s lips set into a firm, straight line. “Well, if his villainous powers include suspending or failing you two, then so be it.”

Baekhyun winced and immediately sat up, grumbling, “Okay, okay, we’ll go.” Looking satisfied, Kyungsoo turned away from them and waddled back over to Jongin.

Chanyeol tried to sit up, but Baekhyun pushed him back down. “Wait wait…” Baekhyun mumbled as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small camera before snuggling up to Chanyeol’s side again and snapping a picture of the two of them. Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol with a smile. “A picture to commemorate the day of our wonderful first snow of almost-winter: November 20^th.” Faintly wondering how frazzled his hair looked in that picture, Chanyeol gazed at Baekhyun’s smiling face as the shorter boy pushed himself up and ran over to Kyungsoo. Chanyeol turned to watch him, but a chubby face and wide eyes appeared in his view.

“Yo, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol drew back with a startled gasp, much to the other’s amusement. “Holy hell, Xiumin, where did you come from?”

“I’ve been standing here for like two minutes.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes as Xiumin held out his hand with a smile. Chanyeol took his hand and stood, brushing the snow off his pants while glaring playfully at the boy. “What’s up, you little weirdo?”

Xiumin stared upward and held up his arms with an awkward smile plastered across his face. “I made it snow today.” Chanyeol narrowed his eyes at the young looking boy. There were few things that the red-haired baozi said that made sense, and this was one of the many that didn’t fit that in category. Although Chanyeol never understood most of the things he said, it was one of the tiny things he loved about the boy’s personality. Over time, everyone just learned to roll with it. That was one of two major rules with Xiumin: there’s no use questioning what he says (and if someone did, they probably wouldn’t get an explanation), and don’t mess around when it comes to ‘culinary arts.’

Chanyeol’s eyes strayed away from the boy as he mumbled softly, “Of… course you did,” with an unfocused stare and a smile on his lips as his vision was drawn toward Baekhyun’s direction.

Xiumin glanced over to Chanyeol and laughed softly as he looked back up to the sky. “Because snow is the changing between the seasons, sometimes they say that snow brings a dramatic change just waiting to happen.”

Chanyeol shuddered. “It seems like it just brings cold and wet.”

Xiumin scoffed and grabbed Chanyeol’s wrist as he stared into his eyes. “It was an unexpected change in weather though. Maybe some other unexpected stuff may happen.” His eyes twinkled as he leaned closer and whispered, “Maybe it’s a sign.”

“Maybe it’s science,” Chanyeol deadpanned, pulling away from the boy.

Xiumin rolled his eyes as he walked away, waving off the entire conversation. “Don’t pretend I didn’t say anything. But if some really awesome stuff happens to you soon, don’t hesitate to thank me.” Chanyeol frowned before turning back toward Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.

---------------

::Tuesday::

Three days made it seem like I had a lot of time.

“Eww, what the hell is that?”

“Food. It’s a mix of a bunch of stuff I like. I call it ‘Baekhyun’s mix of a bunch of stuff he likes.’”

“It looks like a mix of poisons.”

Baekhyun slapped the back of Chanyeol’s head with a sassy “hmph.”

Chanyeol squeaked softly, rubbing the back of his head as Baekhyun picked at his food with his chopsticks. They looked at each other and burst into laughter at the looks on their faces.

“Here, if you try it, you’ll like it.”

“I highly doubt it.”

Baekhyun pouted. “Maybe if you try something new other than that unappetizing cafeteria slop, you wouldn’t be so grumpy all the time.”

“Hey. Keep your opinions to yourself.” Chanyeol poked at his lunch and grumbled, “Who are you to talk about unappetizing slop.”

Baekhyun sighed and poked around his food before asserting, “It’s really quite good…” He smiled as he added, “Even Kyungsoo and Xiumin approve!” as he held up a couple of noodles and a bunch of other stuff that Chanyeol felt really shouldn’t be in that mix. Chanyeol winced and shuffled back in his seat. Baekhyun frowned before he smirked playfully. “Here comes the train! Choo choo~” he sang as he moved his chopsticks toward Chanyeol’s mouth, who pushed it away playfully.

“I’m not five, Baek.”

“Oh? Could have fooled me…” Baekhyun put his chopsticks in his mouth, smirking a little as he tapped Chanyeol’s nose and picked up more food. “Seriously, just try it. Here,” Baekhyun insisted as he turned to Chanyeol. “Say ahh…”

Chanyeol eyed the food warily, wondering how Xiumin, whose dream was to go to culinary school, or Kyungsoo, who was already self-proclaimed ‘Chef of the world,’ would approve of something like this, before he noticed the cute, expectant look on Baekhyun’s face. Chanyeol’s eye twitched as he reluctantly opened his mouth, yet he found it odd when he didn’t immediately cringe at the taste of Baekhyun’s food.

In fact, it was so good that Chanyeol found himself stealing Baekhyun’s dish and shoveling the slop into his mouth.

“Whoa, whoa, slow the hell down. I didn’t pack enough for the both of us.”

Chanyeol looked up with a couple of noodles hanging out of his mouth. He didn’t stop to swallow before slurring, “Then why did you give me some?”

“I didn’t expect you to want more of it. I didn’t expect you to even like it,” he responded with a wince.

Chanyeol smiled and poked at Baekhyun’s food before opting to feed him the same way Baekhyun had fed him. “It’s oddly satisfying.”

“Damn straight.” Baekhyun opened his mouth and took the food from Chanyeol’s chopsticks.

Chanyeol smiled to him. “Is that why you’re so pudgy nowadays? Because you eat so much of this disgustingly good food and refuse to share it?”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes before snatching back his dish with a scowl. “I’m not pudgy. You’re grossly thin... and my slight pudginess adds to my charm.”

Chanyeol snickered as he turned back to his own lunch, poking at it in silence.

“By the way,” Baekhyun mumbled after a while, and stopped to pick up a curly fry that had fallen out of his mouth, “Can I stay at your house this weekend?”

Chanyeol glanced up. “Are your parents kicking you out?” His expression quickly changed to a judgmental stare. “Did you steal your mom’s eyeliner again? Or did you take off your pants and run through the neighborhood in nothing but your boxers again?”

Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a playful shove and grunted. “Of course not. Well, they’re not kicking me out at least. I just wanted to hang out. Your birthday’s coming up soon and I… I kind of… wanna be there at midnight on your birthday.” His voice faded to a soft, jumbled whisper.

Chanyeol paused and raised an eyebrow. “That was incredibly cheesy.”

Baekhyun shuffled through his lunch and held up a Mozzarella cheese stick, giving a cheesy smile.

Chanyeol groaned and took half of the cheese stick from Baekhyun and shoved it into his mouth, prompting Baekhyun’s laughter.

“But really,” Baekhyun paused to put some of the cheese stick in his own mouth, “I just want to hang out over the weekend. My parents won’t mind. Yours shouldn’t mind. That’s the way it goes.”

Chanyeol laughed softly, knowing that was true. He shoved around some of Baekhyun’s food and lifted more of it into his mouth, sloppily slurping up his noodles. “Alright then, if you have nothing to do.”

Baekhyun looked up to Chanyeol and frowned, catching Chanyeol’s attention. “… What?”

“You have…” Baekhyun put his thumb up to Chanyeol’s lip and wiped off his bottom lip. “Just a bit of sauce…” Baekhyun frowned and it off his fingers, looking up to Chanyeol when he finished.

“Your face is really red right now,” he deadpanned, keeping his eyes narrow.

“What?! No it’s not – it’s just… the hot sauce was spicy.”

“Uh huh, Chanyeol. Sure.”

“It was!”

“I didn’t use any hot sauce, babo.”

---------------

::Wednesday::

I had two days to use, but I didn’t know how much I was really wasting. I should have cherished the tiny things. I should have stayed awake just a second longer to hear his voice.

Chanyeol was lying on his bed, staring at the small black velvet box between his fingers. He held it over his head and frowned to it. He had purchased the item a week or two ago, and now that it was almost his birthday, he was getting nervous. He often wondered whether it was a good idea, or if it was just a compulsive act that he did because the shine from the inside of the store drew him in and it was like something practically pushed him into the store that day. He and Xiumin were talking about the subject a week before he bought them, so when he found the perfect ones, he couldn’t stop himself from entering the store and purchasing them.

Chanyeol opened the box slowly, holding the silver up to the light so it reflected off the perfectly polished rings in a glorious way. The simple silver bands cast circular shadows across his wall, and the small hearts and gems embedded into them made small sparkles dance throughout the room. He took one out of the box and slipped it onto his pinky before holding his hand up to the light and staring at the ring on his finger, wondering how the other would look on Baekhyun’s beautifully delicate fingers. He peeked at the other ring and smiled nervously before his phone suddenly vibrated next to him. Chanyeol sat up slightly irritated and glanced at the screen.

From ByunBaek: “Hey, are you busy?”

Chanyeol closed the box and set it down, replacing it with his phone.

To ByunBaek: “Nope, not really. What’s up?”

From ByunBaek: “I wanna talk. Are you alone?”

To ByunBaek: “Yeah… Why?”

Chanyeol didn’t get a text in response. Instead, his ringtone blared through the silence. Chanyeol cursed, doing anything to shut it off. He pushed the talk button frantically and held it up to his ear.

“God, what the hell, yes?”

Baekhyun was silent for a while on the other end. “Am I bothering you?”

Chanyeol shook his head. “No, my ringtone just made me a little bit deaf.” Baekhyun laughed a little, and when he silenced, Chanyeol asked, “So what was so important to make sure I was alone? Why wasn’t texting good enough?”

Baekhyun frowned from the other side and said softly, “Nothing really, I just wanted to talk to you.”

Chanyeol yawned. “It’s too late to be talking like this, isn’t it?”

Baekhyun’s smile was evident from the other side of the phone. “It is, but I don’t really care.”

Chanyeol sighed and opened his mouth to speak, but Baekhyun cut him off.

“Oh, before I forget, have you decided what you’re doing for your birthday on Monday yet?”

Chanyeol frowned. “No, I thought we were just going to hang out.”

“Your mom hasn’t made plans or anything right?”

“Not that I know of…”

Baekhyun’s smirk was obvious in his response. “Good, because I want you all to myself that day.” Chanyeol blinked, trying to remain unaware of the sudden heat in his cheeks. “I’ve already planned a list of things that we’re going to do together, so don’t get busy.”

Chanyeol pouted. “What if I don’t want to hang out with you?”

“Well that’s impossible!” Baekhyun scoffed. “Who wouldn’t want to hang out with me?”

“Anyone in their right mind.”

“Then I guess you’re not in your right mind, but we all knew that already.” Chanyeol gasped in mock hurt, to which Baekhyun replied, “Don’t pretend it’s not true. I’ve known you for years.”

“Maybe it’s been too many years, then. Knowing me too well could be dangerous,” Chanyeol added with a devious smirk.

“Don’t say that,” Baekhyun scolded. “I never want these years to end.”

“Sure.”

Baekhyun silenced and pouted for a second. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who really looks forward to everything we do together and –”

“That’s not true –” Chanyeol sat up quickly, cutting him off. “I want to be there for everything too. I was there when you got your first award, and when we went to high school together, and we went through all of our major hardships together. I want to be there on your birthday too, and when we graduate from college, or when we get our first jobs. Heck, I want to be there when you get your angel wings too!”

Baekhyun laughed loudly. “You didn’t let me finish, idiot, but your cheesiness has been increasing a lot lately. Where’s the real Chanyeol and what have you done with that heartless bastard?”

Chanyeol’s laughter was enveloped in Baekhyun’s, and the two escaped into tales of memories of the years past and any random topics on Baekhyun’s mind. Chanyeol lay on his bed in his dimly lit room, twirling the box with the ring in it between his fingers and smiling at the brunette’s voice as he imagined the smile on Baekhyun’s face.

Somewhere in the night, Chanyeol had fallen asleep to the sounds of Baekhyun’s soft rambling with his phone lying beside his ear. After he noticed the giant wasn’t responding to him anymore, Baekhyun gave an annoyed sigh. “Did you fall asleep, Chanyeol?” When Chanyeol didn’t respond, he blinked, sitting up a little. “…Yeol…?” At the soft sound of Chanyeol sniffing from the other side of the line and then silence, he playfully rolled his eyes as he lay back down. “So I’ve been talking to myself for the past 20 minutes or so? Ah, Chanyeol, seriously…” Baekhyun laughed softly, but quickly paused and inquired, “Wait, you’re actually asleep, right? I can say anything now and you won’t hear it…?”

Baekhyun smiled at the silence before he whispered, “Well then, as I was saying before, when you didn’t let me finish, I’m glad that if I have a best friend to share all of these memories with, that it’s you… because you make me really happy.” He stopped to laugh. “I’m glad you interrupted me because I couldn’t say something like that in front of you; you’d have some snide remark like always right? … But really, Chanyeol. You’re my best friend. And I never want to lose that.”

Baekhyun stopped speaking and stared at the ceiling in silence for a minute or two before he closed his eyes and finally fell asleep with a serene smile on his face, listening to the sound of Chanyeol’s soft breathing.

When Chanyeol woke up, he found the call had only disconnected 9 minutes before.

---------------

::Thursday::

I only had one day left, but I thought there’d be so much more. I didn’t think I could run out of time. I should have had more time…

Chanyeol twirled his pencil between his fingers as he stared at his trigonometry homework, wondering why he wasn’t procrastinating until later. His mother had frantically run out of the house, shouting something about being out pretty late. Chanyeol didn’t care much. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been home alone before, and he wouldn’t be doing anything other than studying for the trigonometry test tomorrow.

In the midst of his thinking, the sound of the door opening suddenly caught Chanyeol by surprise. He mentally cursed his mother for leaving the door unlocked as he jumped out of his seat and held up his pencil with the slightly dulled edge facing the direction of the door. He knew he should have invented a pen that turned into a sword for a reason like this.

The door slammed closed, and as tiny fast footsteps approached him, Chanyeol had all intention to run up the stairs screaming like a girl and lock himself in his room, hoping the intruder wouldn’t find him there. Then he remembered his secret candy stash and newly unopened box of triple chocolate fudge cookies (the ones with the melted chocolate in the center) and realized if he protected anything in the house, it would be those.

So when he heard the familiar shrill shriek of his name from the direction of the door, he was caught off guard.

“Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol lowered his stance as a small brunette ran into the room and pushed Chanyeol to the ground before pulling his pencil out from between his fingers and straddling the startled younger boy, with the dulled edge of the pencil facing Chanyeol’s chest. One of his hands pushed Chanyeol’s shoulder into the ground while the other tightened its grip on his pencil as he spoke. “Chanyeol, you took home my trigonometry book and you better help me with the homework or so help me, I will stab you in the chest with this dull pencil that your stupid brain thought was a decent attempt at defense. I am not failing a test because of your idiocy.”

Chanyeol stared up at Baekhyun before bursting into laughter at the deadly look in Baekhyun’s serious eyes. “Okay, okay, you could have asked me nicely – ah! Take off your shoes! You’re tracking dirt through my house!”

Baekhyun glared daggers into Chanyeol’s eyes at the sound of his whine. “You are in no position to be asking for ‘nice’ or any type of favor when I have a useless excuse of a murder weapon pointed at your heart. Or at least where your heart would be if you had one!”

Chanyeol laughed harder, finding it difficult to breathe with the brunette sprawled across him. Chanyeol pushed the older boy off him with a small shove as he attempted to sit up on the floor, muttering “okay, okay” softly between his laughter. Baekhyun stood up and dusted off his pants, smiling to Chanyeol.

After taking off his jacket and shoes (with a whiny conversation about the brunette’s entrance that ended with Chanyeol on the floor and Baekhyun reminding him of his hapkido skills) and finally settling down at the table and shutting up Baekhyun with one of his fudge cookies (which the bastard better have thanked him for because he wasn’t planning on sharing those with anybody – especially someone that hapkido flipped his two seconds before), Chanyeol pointed to an example in the book and read it aloud, trying to explain. “Sine squared theta plus cosine squared theta equals one. That’s a trig identity that you’ll see often.”

Chanyeol adjusted his glasses before he glanced up to the brunette and swore he saw a bit of drool escaping the other’s lips. “Yah,” Chanyeol groaned as he pushed the other slightly, “Byun Baek, I swear if you listened half as well as you flip people, you’d have no problem in trigonometry.”

Baekhyun shook his head, inelegantly wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s not that I’m bad at listening, it’s that I… don’t listen.” Chanyeol flicked the other boy’s forehead, causing him to draw back in pain. “That’s not what I meant, that’s not what I meant!” Baekhyun held his hands in front of his forehead, scowling as he attempted to explain. “Everything that you’re saying sounds like Greek to me.”

Chanyeol softly blurted, “But theta is Greek…” but Baekhyun spoke over Chanyeol, trying to ignore the interruption.

“And I know you know how terrifying that is because you accidentally walked into that room at school where everyone was speaking Greek that one time and ran out screaming.”

Chanyeol glared at Baekhyun. “We are never supposed to mention that day.”

 Baekhyun glared back. “Then you should have some empathy.”

 Chanyeol sighed and scribbled down some notes while muttering, “I swear everything goes in one ear and out the other with you.”

Chanyeol opted to leave Baekhyun alone to work on his homework and answer any questions the shorter had in the midst of it, which happened more often than Baekhyun would like to admit. Chanyeol’s house was silent except for the scratching of pencil to paper, the flipping of pages, and Baekhyun’s soft whine of “Why the hell is trigonometry such a devil subject?!”

Sometime in the middle of the silence, Chanyeol began humming softly as he did his homework, and Baekhyun quickly picked up on the melody and sang along. Chanyeol stopped and looked at him. “You don’t listen to me explain math, but you immediately join in song?”

Baekhyun looked away, seeming flustered. “I like that song. Don’t hate.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes as he continued humming and Baekhyun sang along until the song finished. Baekhyun stared down to his book before flipping it closed and running down the hallway. Chanyeol glanced in his direction before Baekhyun ran back with Chanyeol’s guitar in his grasp. He grabbed the giant’s wrist and pulled him toward the couch, pushing him onto it and immediately shoved the guitar into Chanyeol’s hand with a dazzling smile.

“You should play for me.”

Chanyeol looked down to the guitar and back up to Baekhyun, still trying to recall how he was sitting in front of a math book one second and was suddenly in a completely different area, looking up to an expectant Baekhyun. Slightly dazed, he asked softly, “What about trigonometry?” tilting his head in the direction of the table, but Baekhyun shook his head quickly in response.

“I can’t think now. I just want to sing.”

“But what about the test tomorrow?”

Baekhyun hit his chest proudly. “I will fail it with pride.”

Chanyeol’s eyes narrowed. “I meant what about me.”

“Everyone knows you don’t need to study,” Baekhyun scoffed.

Chanyeol nodded thoughtfully before setting the guitar on his thigh and strumming a chord before the two started singing together.

As minutes turned into hours, the two boys sang the night away until Chanyeol put down the guitar, and Baekhyun sat on Chanyeol’s lap, leaning back into him as he sang. Chanyeol closed his eyes, reveling in the sound of Baekhyun’s soft voice as though it was a lullaby.

 Baekhyun’s voice softened and Chanyeol was half asleep when Baekhyun’s song ended abruptly in the middle so he could interrupt.

“Chanyeol?”

“…Hmm?” Chanyeol’s voice was laden with sleep.

“… Will you ever leave me?”

Chanyeol’s arms tightened around Baekhyun’s waist. “No… no of course not. Never.”

Baekhyun’s hands clenched into tight little balls. “Promise?”

Chanyeol nodded into Baekhyun’s back. “Promise.” There was a soft yawn followed by a sleepy response. “I’ll stay with you forever, Baekhyun. We’ll always be together.”

The two of them fell asleep on the couch in a tangled mess of limbs.

---------------

::Friday::

I never knew how quickly I could run out of time, or how painful and paralyzing it could be until it actually happened.

Chanyeol hadn’t seen Baekhyun much that day (besides when he woke up to his mother screaming at 6 am because the two were laying on top of each other in quite an awkwardly suggestive position) and he couldn’t stand not seeing the brunette until their last class.

The day passed by slowly until they finally had their class together. Chanyeol opted to sit behind Baekhyun after realizing that the brunette had taken a seat next to Xiumin. During the lecture, Chanyeol remained relatively quiet as he watched Baekhyun and Xiumin pass little notes to each other, silently seething as he realized usually he and Baekhyun would usually be doing that. Chanyeol remained stoic, however, until they were released to do classwork together with their seatmates, which was when Chanyeol decided to take action.

Chanyeol softly poked Baekhyun’s back with his pencil. Baekhyun wiggled a little in his seat, but made no attempt to turn around. Chanyeol frowned and wrote slowly on his back with his eraser.

‘Are we doing something after school today?’

Baekhyun paused, seeming to think about it for a second before nodding a little and dropping his head to return to his work. Unsatisfied, Chanyeol asked another question.

‘What is it?’

Baekhyun quickly shook his head. Chanyeol frowned playfully as he wrote something else on his back.

‘… Is it a mineral?’

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes as he turned around to face Chanyeol. “This isn’t 20 questions.”

Chanyeol smiled. “It’s just easier when you talk to me. Now come on, explain.”

Baekhyun turned back around and whispered, “Class gets out in 30 minutes. Can’t you wait?”

Chanyeol groaned as he lay across the top of his desk, mumbling, “Apparently not.”

Chanyeol managed to delay his desire to speak to the brunette until the bell rang to dismiss them from class, but before he was able to ask Baekhyun about his day and what they were going to do after school together, he noticed the boy silently slipping out of the classroom. Chanyeol packed up quickly and followed him until he caught up with him at the doors of the school. Chanyeol opened his mouth to speak, but Baekhyun cut him off.

“I’m meeting Kyungsoo in the parking lot, so you can go home alone.”

Surprised, Chanyeol blinked at the sound of the awkward tone in Baekhyun’s voice and eyed him uncertainly. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

Baekhyun nodded slowly and turned away from him as fluffs of sleet rained around them.

Chanyeol frowned. Something seemed off about Baekhyun’s actions today. He had seemed a little grumpier than usual when he woke up, but it seemed more so even now. He cautiously put his hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder and asked carefully, “Hey, are you okay?” but he was surprised when Baekhyun shrugged his hand off his shoulder with a slightly wary look in his eyes as he turned around to face him.

“I’m fine.”

Chanyeol’s frown deepened. “Are you sure? You don’t seem fine…”

“I’m perfectly fine. Don’t make me repeat myself,” Baekhyun muttered as he turned back around to continue walking.

Chanyeol frowned, recalling that they hadn’t studied the night before for the trigonometry test. Chanyeol reached out to grab Baekhyun’s hand as he asked curiously, “Was it the math test? Did you do badly? I know we didn’t study, but you’re the one that wanted to sing and–”

“I’m fine, geez, will you just leave me alone? Don’t touch me.” Baekhyun slapped Chanyeol’s hand away and gave the boy a sharp glare before he started walking again, followed by the confused, slightly offended Chanyeol.

“Did I do something wrong? Can I help to make it better?” Chanyeol pleaded, yearning for an explanation.

“It’d get better if you just left me alone.”

Chanyeol stopped, suddenly more than slightly offended. He grabbed Baekhyun’s shoulders and turned him around to face him, staring down to him menacingly. “Okay, it’s obvious that something is definitely wrong and you’re just not telling me, so fess up.”

“There’s nothing wrong, and I don’t have to tell you anything if I don’t want to.”

“I know you well enough to know that something’s wrong and it’d be better if you just gave me some peace of mind.”

“If you knew me well enough, you’d know to just leave me alone.”

“Was it the test–”

“It’s not about the freaking math test, Chanyeol!”

“Why are you being so rude?”

“Why are you being so persistent and annoying?”

“I’m just trying to be a good friend and ask you what the hell is wrong!”

“Well apparently I just don’t want to tell you! Can’t you respect that enough to leave me the hell alone?!”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun glared at each other huffing angrily before Chanyeol replied sharply, “Fine you want to be alone? I’ll leave you alone,” as he his heels, leaving the brunette behind him to do the same.

As Chanyeol stomped off angrily, he noted the sleet change into soft fluffs of snow, melting quickly as they landed on the pavement. He momentarily glanced back to Baekhyun, recalling that he wasn’t wearing a thick jacket. Chanyeol’s anger slightly dissipated as his breath escaped in a small wisp of air. “Stay warm. Stay safe…”

It was only when Chanyeol was halfway home that he remembered Baekhyun was planning on staying at his house for the weekend. He whipped out his phone to see if Baekhyun had asked something about it, but when he saw no texts from Baekhyun, he frowned. Chanyeol sighed and decided to take the initiative.

To ByunBaek: “Hey, text me when you get home.”

A reply came half a minute later:

From ByunBaek: “K.”

Chanyeol groaned. It was going to be a long day.

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