Title: Waltz

Pairing: BaekYeol

Rating: nc-17

Length: 6916 Words (6/11)

Genres: Romance

Summary: Baek Hyun has been getting relentless calls from a strange number at the strangest times and he decided to post the contact number on some gay dating website for the calls to stop. It was supposed to work, goddamnit.

 

===

 

They didn’t go to the workshop over the weekend. Baek Hyun had instead stayed up at the firm that Saturday until 7pm and the only reason why he walked away at all from his office was because Kyung Soo, who also was there, told him that he was going to grab some lunch (or dinner actually).

 

There was a complex on the other side of the road of their firm’s building. Attached to the complex were few of Baek Hyun’s favourite diner (because they were cheap) and among them was Subway.

 

They went there three times a week, joining the rest of the lunch crowd who looked weary with tense shoulders and tight face. Cash was constantly short, and Baek Hyun sort of didn’t like spending his money on mere insignificant things like meal, because pfft, mundane thing.

 

He lied, of course. 

 

He had already settled into his chair, waiting for Kyung Soo to join him as the smaller male was filling his drink at the water dispenser and sure enough, his cubicle-mate walked back to their table with two paper cups of soft drink.

 

“Thanks.” Baek Hyun said gratefully, enjoying the man’s rare nicety and he started to unwrap the paper to his sandwich with a tired sigh.

 

Because it was the weekend, they were allowed to dress casually. Baek Hyun had put on a black jumper, sleeves rolled up to his elbow, and washed blue skinny jeans. Kyung Soo however opted for a boring black polo short sleeved tee tucked into a pair of fitting khaki pants.

 

The man cleared his throat and it caught his attention.

 

“Baek Hyun-ssi, if you don’t mind me asking,” He started slowly with his usual blank expression. “What is the nature of your relationship with Kim Jong Dae’s manager, really?”

 

Baek Hyun looked up from biting into his sub, sandwich already halfway in before he hesitantly pull them out. Kyung Soo looked disgusted at that, and even Baek Hyun would admit that it was pretty stupid to be honest, spit connecting the sandwich and his lips.

 

But Chan Yeol never complained.  

 

“Lu Han?” He asked to which, the other man nodded in response.

 

And then Baek Hyun just couldn’t help the grin, with the too bright fluorescents lighting the whole place up and the stench of fresh onion and marinated meat and all and Kyung Soo’s face suddenly morphed into his usual murderous one.

 

It was almost too hilarious how quickly everything can change.

 

But Kyung Soo showing interest in anything about him just made Baek Hyun sort of wanna go for an aww, flattered and giddy for no explainable reason.  

 

“I didn’t know that you have such a keen interest in me, Kyung Soo-yah? Finally decided to open up your arms for me?”

 

He grinned, too wide in fact, that his face kinda hurt.

 

Kyung Soo looked as if he regretted bringing this up at all.

 

===

 

It had been four weeks since he first met Chan Yeol and in that expanse of time, he’d come to realise that acting normally around the tall male was difficult. He can contain himself on most days, because Baek Hyun wasn’t the friendliest person out there, but he would be lying if he said that he wasn’t affected (in a bad, bad way, like the murderous type, violent and aggressive) by how opened the man seemed to be around him these days.

 

“Do you know that I lift?”

 

“And I care how?”

 

“Come on now, check out my guns!”

 

“That’s disgusting you insufferable brat. Go die.”

 

“Hey, these babies never failed me.”

 

“Go away, Chan Yeol, go die.”

 

He’d drove that day because he’d anticipated coming back late. He’d fixed his car just last Saturday, three weeks after the accident and it still baffled him how the whole thing only took up 30 minutes for the mechanic to screw the rear bumper back to its original position. Baek Hyun, however, hadn’t bothered asking them to retouch the scraped paint from the accident.

 

Because, you know, cash issue and despite how Chan Yeol had insisted that he will pay seeing that it was his fault really and all, Baek Hyun though did something so unexpected and it gave him a jolt of pride to see that he was more of a man than what he thought he was.

 

“I’m not going to poach a college student’s money for something that I can easily pay.”

 

“And yet, I feed you every day and you allow it?”

 

“Shh, it’s okay.”

 

“What?”

 

“What?”

 

“What oka –”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You’re confusing m –”

 

“I’m sorry, huh?”

 

“Oh my god, Baek Hyun, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

 

It was probably for the best that he didn’t mention in the four weeks of having Chan Yeol around, his life had been a messy jumble of comfort and full and content and free food.

 

“Winter melon tea?”

 

That night Baek Hyun looked over to the slumping figure against the wall outside of his apartment and Chan Yeol beamed up to him with his usual blinding ugly grin. There was a white plastic bag by his feet and Chan Yeol had hastily got up.

 

“God, stop smiling, you’re giving me a headache.” He moaned as he moved to unlock the front door, ignoring the scheduled “Ow! Ow! My feet!”

 

The corridor was empty as usual because it was already so late. Baek Hyun was accustomed to such environment, the stench of concrete floor, the high-pitch zzng sound from the light and the comforting smell of Chan Yeol –a fascinating mixture of tobacco and cologne and mint.

 

Chan Yeol followed him in, plastic bag heavy in his hand and Baek Hyun heave out a sigh, because it was Wednesday and it was laundry night.

 

But it was 1am already.

 

“What’s wrong with smiling? You should do it more often, you know, keep you young or something. You look so haggard and yucky these days.”

 

Time flew by so quickly, and it was a routine now.

 

It was weird how easy it was for Chan Yeol to waltz his way in, injecting his presence into Baek Hyun’s day-to-day activity with quick text messages of ‘I’m home now~’ or ‘WAKE ME UP IN 30 MINUTES NO JOKE I HAVE A QUIZ TODAY BUT I’M SO SLEEPY I NEED TO SLEEP BUT JUST WAKE ME UP!!!!!!’ which resulted in an awkward phone call filled with endless cursing and degradation.

 

Baek Hyun realised that they were just so sweet like that, it was ing nauseating.    

 

“So, I bought winter melon tea.” Chan Yeol had exclaimed from the dining table.

 

“I’ll be home late starting this week. You know, peak period.”

 

“Ah, that’s okay. I’ll call you to ask from time to time.”

 

“You do realise that this isn’t cute at all, but more on the line of creepy, right?”

 

“Free food, Baek Hyun, free food.”

 

“Hyung, it’s either that or nothing, don’t be rude.”

 

Baek Hyun had settled on the couch right away, socked feet propped up onto the glass coffee table. The cushion was soft on his back.

 

“There’s ice in the fridge.” He told the tall man who had walked into the kitchen, height towering over everything and he smirked when Chan Yeol walked over to him with a glass filled with iced winter melon tea, so obedient as he passed them to Baek Hyun. “Have I told you before what a good wife you make?”

 

It was sufficient to say that he actually kind of deserve the bottle of winter melon tea to be aimed at his crotch. He was lucky that Chan Yeol’s aim balls, else, he would be ball-less by the end of the night, or morning, whatever.

 

Chan Yeol settled next to him on the couch. They do this every day without fail with Chan Yeol bringing some weird ingredients for dinner, and they would’ve eaten quietly before moving to the living room for some lame TV show.

 

It was sad to think how content Baek Hyun was with this new routine, this new development because where life used to be all about him, him, Jong Dae, him, Kyung Soo and him, now, there was a new person sitting so obnoxiously next to him. As if he belonged there, there, right there, and it frustrate him further because Chan Yeol fitted really well that Baek Hyun can’t imagine it to be the other way.

 

And then there was the issue of him rejecting the man’s advances, rejecting his insistent pushing for this weird, unnamed friendship that they were forming this whole time, bond created over simple meals and spent time in front of the TV every night with harsh words and insults.

 

He tried denying the man’s entrance before, but needless to say, it didn’t work.

 

Because, you know, height difference and and see, he hated tall people for a reason. He hated stubborn people too, people like Jong Dae, Kyung Soo, Lu Han and now, Chan Yeol, who kept pushing and pushing and forcing their way into his life despite the wall of aloofness and mean personality he built around himself.

 

It was irritating.

 

But it was probably the best feeling he ever had.

 

“How’s work today? Is Kyung Soo still trying to kill you?”

 

Chan Yeol tended to do these little things that made Baek Hyun squirming in places.

 

He remembers.

 

The things that spouted from Baek Hyun’s mouth were usually crap, nonsensical things that even Jong Dae would usually ignore, but with Park Chan Yeol?

 

He remembered everything.

 

“I swear to god, he’s plotting it. You should see his eyes, man. Crazy .” Baek Hyun huffed out.

The winter melon tea was good, sweet on his tongue and when Chan Yeol gave him a small laugh, giving his thigh a good-natured pat before he stood, Baek Hyun almost wished that Chan Yeol won’t leave. “Where are you going?” He called out, noticing with a defeated sigh that the man was only heading towards the kitchen.

 

“Dinner, Baek Hyun-nie. I’m starving.”

 

Baek Hyun was still slumped against the sofa, feet sprawled open and he called out to the man again.

 

“It’s either hyung, or Baek Hyun-ssi or just Baek Hyun. Don’t be rude.”

 

“But you never liked me calling you ssi, I don’t like calling you hyung and every time I called you just Baek Hyun, you said that I’m rude. So what’s wrong with Baek Hyun-nie? At least one of us likes it.” Chan Yeol’s reply had been quick.

 

Baek Hyun didn’t need to tell him that it was because it did weird things to his heartbeat and his chest and his stomach. So he settled for something lamer.

 

“Because I’m three years older, so shut up.”

 

===

 

“By the way, Baek Hyun-nie, I’m sort of curious about something.”

 

It was 1.15pm and Baek Hyun was out for lunch, but this time, with only Jong Dae and Kyung Soo.

 

“What thing?” He asked in a drawled out tone as he dunk the garlic bread into the mushroom soup.

 

He’d had heavy dinner last night (or morning) and he wasn’t that hungry. It was always grilled things with plain rice or fried rice and weird delicious dipping sauce. And then there was the kimchi. And the soju sometimes, and Chan Yeol’s frown from being denied a cup or a bottle of the alcoholic drink.

 

Ah, to be honest, he felt really powerful around the man nowadays. He wondered if this was what Lu Han felt every day.

 

He looked up to his friends, or a best friend and a cubicle-mate who wanted him dead daily, and felt his shoulders sort of slacking in relaxation. Jong Dae looked calm as he dip his fork into the mashed potato and stuff it into his mouth.

 

Kyung Soo now, on the other hand, looked famished as he pig out on a box of pastries that seemed suspiciously similar with the one Chan Yeol had given him that first time he waited for Baek Hyun against the wall outside of his apartment.

 

“Hey, Kyung Soo-yah, you always take the subway home right? Do you know about the ‘Papa’s puffy puff puff’? You know, the ing cream puff?”

 

“The kiosk has shut down six weeks ago.”

 

“No, they’re not. They got a proper store now. It’s next to the 7-eleven in the underground station. How can you not notice them?”

 

Baek Hyun still remembered how Kyung Soo looked as if he was on the verge of tearing up at his comment. He briefly wondered if the absence of the cream puff that made Kyung Soo so murderous the past few weeks, because the look he was wearing now was probably the closest one to happiness. For Kyung Soo’s standard, at least.   

 

He actually looked more, well, nice?

 

“That stalker guy, what’s his name again? Chen? Yil?”

 

Baek Hyun quickly interjected him with a sigh.

 

“Chan Yeol.”

 

“Yeah, that one. Your phone didn’t vibrate anymore these days, did he stopped stalking you for real?”

 

Baek Hyun leaned against his chair, couldn’t help noticing how Kyung Soo was blissfully ignoring the whole world in general and a part of him wondered if that was how he would look like while cutting his victim’s fingers bones by bones, one by one, pulling their nails first just so he can hear them cry louder in agony and begged him for mercy.

 

It was a disturbing thought.

 

But it was all so Kyung Soo, because, just look at his pale skin and his black hair. Look at his shoulders, they were so small and then there were his short limbs, his huge chibi head and his eyes. He was a textbook example of a psychopath. There was no doubt about it.  

 

“Kind of?” Baek Hyun said carefully and he was lucky Jong Dae was busy cutting his medium well New York strip to look up and watch his best friend’s expression. “But we’ve got my car fixed up, though. So, no worries there.” Baek Hyun assured him, a little bit nervous because peak period was hectic, Jong Dae didn’t even have the time to drop by his house or go out for drinks and all.

 

If the man had decided to give him a surprise visit one day, Baek Hyun wouldn’t know how to explain why a former stalker was cooking in his kitchen while Baek Hyun showered. Chan Yeol was diligent in coming over daily except for the weekend because according to him –

 

“I know you’ll miss this bad boy of guns and handsome face, but papi needs alone time too.”  

 

“Go yourself.”

 

“Did so for the last few months, to be honest, because I’m kinda, you know, single?” 

 

Jong Dae looked up to him, stared for a while before shrugging his small shoulders.

 

“One last thing though,” Jong Dae said and stabbed his fork into one part of the meat, slowly cutting a small cube chunk for himself. “Have you brought down the Gay Romeo profile?”

 

Ah.

 

Well damn.

 

“Err,” he started, a little anxious and it was strange why he was suddenly all anxious now. “No, not really.” He dipped a spoonful of soup and stuffed it into his mouth, metal clanking against his teeth.

 

Jong Dae’s laughter was musical, a tickling sound with a high pitch quality that Baek Hyun actually found comfort in no matter how he hated the man.

 

It was not the first time that Baek Hyun was sure that he was such a er for his best friend.

 

===

 

He went home that night to the usual image of Chan Yeol waiting for him against the wall. The man should really find something else to do rather than wasting time like this, but a strange part of Baek Hyun wished that he’ll continue on like this, face so serene and calm.

 

It was conflicting feelings when it came to him these days.

 

They went in and instead of showering right away, Baek Hyun had dropped all of his stuff on the coffee table and taken off his shirt. He walked to the dining table, dropped the shirt on the table before walking to the laundry room to take the sewing kit he was sure Kyung Soo had left it there. He was right, there were in the drawer next to the washing machine and he walked back out to the dining table and took a seat at one of the chairs.

 

His fingers were nimble as they inspected the missing button at the cuff. Dropping the shirt back on the table, Baek Hyun sighed out as he took out his wallet, carefully taking out the torn out button from the coins’ slot.

 

He looked up to the kitchen, finding it weird how everything was quiet and saw that Chan Yeol was standing next to the counter, handphone gripped hard with a complex expression. 

 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, finding the silence to be unnerving and the tall man didn’t even spare him a glance to which, Baek Hyun only shrugged before he started working on his cuff.

 

He looked up again after a while to see that Chan Yeol still looked troubled against the kitchen cabinet, phone still clutched in his hands and his eyebrows still did this weird funny movement that Baek Hyun couldn’t help getting concerned (or actually weird out, if he was honest with himself). He had taken out all the ingredient of his food from the plastic when they first came in –meat, mushroom, leek, onion and garlic, but he had yet to start on anything.

 

Baek Hyun’s fingers were careful in stitching back the button of his cuff because he was an idiot and he didn’t know how it had popped out. Strangely, it also kind of reminded him about the brawl he had with Jong Dae four years ago, back when they had gotten so ing drunk after Baek Hyun got dumped. However, the obvious question to him was, even until now, why Jong Dae had been in a worst condition that he kept bumping into Baek Hyun while sitting and still blamed Baek Hyun for it.  

 

“You know what Jong Dae-yah, sometimes, no, most of the times you act like an unattractive fifteen year old girl.”

 

“What? How dare you –you, you fat cow!”

 

“, even your vocab sounds like a fifteen year old.”

 

“God I want to punch your face so badly.”

 

“Sure, I won’t mind anyway because you punch like a girl.”

 

He was pretty sure that there was more because he remembered Jong Dae yelling something about ending things ‘today’ and it had been 11pm and Baek Hyun was a douche and told him that “It’s night time now, moron.” And they got into a brawl.

 

They apologised right away the next day with massive hangover, broken lips and deep frown and everything was well again. 

 

He always knew that he was a er for Jong Dae, and he hated his grandmother for instilling nicety into him since he was a child, because no matter how hard he tried to be mean to everything, he always ended up feeling guilty afterwards and be disgustingly kind, doing meaningless things like apologising and offering a smile or a laugh or a hand.

 

He was disgusting.

 

It was tiring, to be honest, to be so human.

 

A nice human, at that.

 

Baek Hyun knotted the strings of the button sealed and he spread the shirt wide on the table, inspecting his handiwork, proud because he was good like that. He can do anything, really, and he turned to look at the tall man in the kitchen, noticing that younger had don a pair of black skinny jeans on and an oversized white tee. His black cardigan was carelessly dumped on the couch. Baek Hyun needed to shower soon, he was still in his black working pants and white under tee.   

 

Chan Yeol was making faces at his phone, phone’s light glaring through the lenses of his specs.

 

He was always making weird faces at his phone these days, and Baek Hyun wondered why only now that he noticed.

 

“This is weird.” Chan Yeol had started, face pale and Baek Hyun stood up, walking over to him. He leaned against the kitchen counter next to the tall man, peering up to his face and felt irked for having to do so.

 

you height difference.  

 

“What’s weird?” He asked, didn’t really care, but was more amaze if anything for this, whatever it was, was really effective in draining all the colour from the younger man and Baek Hyun decided that he needed to know why. Maybe he can use this. It was really effective and Baek Hyun liked this more than a loud Chan Yeol.  

 

Chan Yeol cleared his throat after a while.

 

“I’ve been getting all these weird messages and nudes and all this creepy stuff about donging with daddy’s 12” and Come ride my black canon and some weirder s.”

 

 Baek Hyun was quiet after that.

 

Wait.

 

No.

 

No, it can’t be –

 

“How many of those do you get daily?” He asked quietly, mouth twitching, because it can’t be –

 

“A lot, man. All of them were from dudes.”

 

Don’t tell me –

 

It can’t be, right?

 

“Well, that’s, you know, a shame then, I mean, yeah.”

 

“This is ing ridiculous man. It’s been more than five weeks, I mean, where do all these people get my number?” Chan Yeol paused however when he looked up, “–Baek Hyun, you look red. Are you all right?”

 

The sincerity of his concerned look sort of like a stab to Baek Hyun’s chest, mostly because he felt so powerful, and Baek Hyun couldn’t decide if he really was an actual closeted sadist.

 

Or was this the Kyung Soo in his head talking?

 

It was weird to begin with, because why the did he even have Kyung Soo’s robotic voice thinking in his mind?

 

Baek Hyun imagined this was how it felt like to execute a revenge, because he felt high, elevated even with chest expanded like he can ing touch the bloody seventh sky. Chan Yeol’s face slowly morphed from a confused lost puppy look to a sceptical one before finally, realisation.

 

Oh damn.

 

“No,” he breathed out, but Baek Hyun was already backing away, to the archway of the kitchen and into the hallway near the entrance door. “Tell me this isn’t you –”

 

“Dude, listen –”

 

“Baek Hyun! My phone had been nothing, but a mobile during my whole presentation, my midterm, my ing lecture! Do you know how ing ridiculous the phone calls were at night?”

 

Baek Hyun raised two hands in a pushing motion, a defence, honestly.

 

“But dude, is mobile.”

 

“No, you’re not doing this to me right now, this is not you right?”

 

“Three months, man.” Was all that he can said, “I’m just saying, s’all.”

 

Needless to say, Baek Hyun didn’t know that he had it in him to run that fast into his bedroom, but only for Chan Yeol to pushed him onto the bed and straddled his hips with stuffing the pillow into his face.

 

Woah, this was so ing weird because he didn’t think that he can laugh that hard.

 

===

 

“Jong Dae, I really need the breakdown of the expenses. Don’t make this harder on me, man.”

 

It was one week later and Baek Hyun was having his lunch now with Kyung Soo, Jong Dae and Lu Han. Kyung Soo was quiet as he nibbled on his Italian BMT while Lu Han was still queuing with a miserable looking face.

 

“Look, why do you ask me? We’re not handling the same case, are we?”

 

Baek Hyun groaned as he slouched against his chair.

 

“But that senior chick, who is she again? Soo Yeon?”

 

“Oh, her? What’s up with her?”

 

“Asked me to call the client and stuff for the breakdown and it got me a free screaming session about being unreliable and s and please, you’ve got to give me the breakdown.”

 

Jong Dae sighed out in return and Baek Hyun kind of understood why he looked so stressed out. It was always like this when it comes to tax and audit, a vicious game of tug and pull between them because the tax department relied on the audit, needed the completed financial report for them to scan through the expenses and see the deductibles and exceptions and s.  

 

That was why the partners liked teaming the two departments against each other for every of their events or family day that kind of s, because the competitiveness was –well, for the lack of a better word, vicious. 

 

“Look, I understand where you’re coming from, but there’s really nothing that I can do to help you. I’m not working on that case, you have to ask her.”

 

Lu Han placed his tray next to Jong Dae, and Baek Hyun wondered since when Lu Han started tagging along for lunches and all.

 

“I did, Jong Dae-yah, but she’s not giving me anything. And I have more on my plate now than what I can handle.” Baek Hyun groaned, catching Lu Han’s attention along the way as the manager perked up in his chair with a grin.

 

There was a reason why he liked avoiding Lu Han.

 

There were a lot of reasons why he avoided Lu Han.

 

“Say, Byun,” Lu Han started slowly as he leaned forward towards the table. “If I push her into giving you the statements, will you join my team then?”

 

Jong Dae had grinned at that and Kyung Soo was staring hardly at the manager, intensely in fact, the hate was thick and Baek Hyun sighed after that.

 

He’d done his intern under Lu Han, he’d suffered in those six months and despite the manager stressing on his desire to have Baek Hyun back under his wing, persuading him even and blackmailed him too –he will not be seduced.

 

He was the mountain, unmovable.

 

Lu Han can go and himself.

 

“No way, Lu Han, the quicker you get over that, the better it’ll be.”

 

And yet, it was 3.25pm when Soo Yeon walked to his table with a snarl and threw the folder to his table, walking away after that haughtily with chin held up high.

 

Baek Hyun wondered if this was Lu Han working his ‘miracle’ again.

 

===

 

He went home one particular night at 12.15am, fatigue written all over his face, his body, his smell, and he was almost sorry to see the slumping figure against the wall outside of his apartment, playing with the red Nintendo DSi XL.

 

Almost.

 

But really, why was he here in the first place anyway? Being a stalker for real?

 

“Aren’t you tired? Stalking me like this.”

 

Chan Yeol looked up as he approached, grin lighting up his face easily and he got to his feet, crying out “Ow! Ow! Can’t feel my legs!” again.

 

Baek Hyun didn’t know since when it was that easy to get used to it, because hell, it was hard getting used to Jong Dae even after being friends for thirteen years.

 

“Nah, not really.” Chan Yeol grinned as he got a proper footing. “Even after the whole Gay Romeo .”

 

Baek Hyun couldn’t explain why it was easy for Chan Yeol to make him grin like that.

 

He really didn’t understand himself anymore.

 

It was as if he had evolved into some strange pokemon that he had no idea how to get back to what he was before, you know, the one that sort of hated everything about the world and people and life in general.

 

He kinda missed that part of himself.

 

It was such a nice phase.

 

“Happiness is infectious, isn’t it?”

 

He had taken down the profile courtesy of Chan Yeol’s pitiful request, but really, the only reason why he had taken them down at all was because Chan Yeol had opened up his laptop from next to him on the coffee table, screaming for Baek Hyun to do it right away or he will stay the night and finished up all of his beer.

 

He didn’t think that it was bad, the threats at least, but he did it anyway because it was long overdue.

 

“I’m tired.” He said when they sat on the couch that night, TV was on and there was some late night news about the oppositions challenging the government and all. As a citizen, he needed to care, but that night, that moment, he was just tired.

 

Chan Yeol was warm next to him, and the only reason why Baek Hyun felt comfortable at all was because he liked warm things. He didn’t like the cold and Chan Yeol made a good heater with all the right temperature and heat.

 

“Work?” The tall man’s question was simple, direct and his voice was so light Baek Hyun couldn’t help the way his shoulder had spontaneously went slack and relaxed.

 

“Yeah,” he sighed out, “The workload is crazy. You’ll see soon, we’re in the same work stream.” Baek Hyun offered him a little grin because man, he wished he can see Chan Yeol suffer.

 

It was the eleventh week that Chan Yeol had been consistently over and that night, Baek Hyun had come to a realisation that they were forming a pattern. They created a new routine, waltzing around each other like it was the most natural thing to do, so effortlessly easy and familiar.

 

It had become repetitive after that.

 

Long hours at work and coming home to a beaming smile outside of his apartment. Then there was the banter, the profanities and the curses, and then there was dinner before finally, a parting.

 

“See you tomorrow?”

 

“I should report you to the police, you know?”

 

“For, what, spending my money unnecessarily to feed you?”

 

“Are you trying to guilt trip me, ?”

 

“Nah, not really my cup of tea. But is it working?”

 

“No, it doesn’t. Now go away, you have class tomorrow.”

 

“And you have work. See you.”

 

Baek Hyun didn’t know why it was easy for him to fall into this routine, being so ing comfortable in fact, that he thought his balls were about to fall off at any time soon. He didn’t know why he just made that reference, but it sort of felt just like that.

 

Chan Yeol went back that night at 2.30am, and it was 3.05am when the expected text message came in.

 

To: Baek Hyun

From: Chan Yeol

Time: 3:05 AM

Text: I’m hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome

 

Baek Hyun had just settled into his bed, strangely still awake despite the fatigue. He was under the duvet, long pyjama black pants and white long sleeved tee. He didn’t bother with the a/c and just settled for the ceiling fan.

 

He constructed a reply, didn’t know why he suddenly feel obligated to do so when he usually would just ignore them and his fingers were quick to type in ‘Ok, go to sleep’, erasing them and typing again ‘And I care, how?’ to ‘Go die.’.

 

It was embarrassing to see the progression of his text messages’ construction. Jong Dae would probably come up with weird ideas and Baek Hyun didn’t really want to think about it. Sighing out was a tiring feat, and Baek Hyun didn’t know why he was calling Park Chan Yeol up.

 

He regretted his decision immediately and was about to cancel the call when a resounding “Hello!” chirped in from the other line.

 

His face felt hot.

 

It felt as if he was about to vomit his stomach out, he felt sick and yet he felt so elevated, as if he was high.

 

“So,” He started and it felt awkward, but it was not the first time that he questioned everything about himself now, because honestly, why the did he even did that? “You’re home now?” He asked the obvious.

 

The chuckle from the other side brought strange warmth out of him, and it wasn’t long before he realised that he was almost in a jelly-like position against the mattress.

 

“I thought the text message was obvious enough.”

 

Baek Hyun snorted in return.

 

“There’s also a possibility that a kidnapper might send one of those to dispel any suspicion.”

 

Chan Yeol’s laugh was melodious (a rude noise, actually) to his ears.

 

“Woah, this is weird. You actually cared!” Chan Yeol cried out amusedly and the dip of his deep voice sort of made Baek Hyun shuddered with conflicting feelings, emotions, because his sweaty palms and the way his heartbeat seemed to pace up couldn’t possibly be resulted from disgust.

 

“I’m gonna hang up now, . Go die.”

 

“Eh, wait, wait, wait! Don’t do that, let’s talk –I wanna talk. You wanna talk too, right?”

 

He knew it.

 

He knew it very well, but still.

 

“Now, that’s just charming.”

 

“Well, what can I say? It’s in my nature, perfection runs along with charming, y’know?”

 

He looked up to the clock on the table next to his bed, noting that it was already so late and he needed to sleep soon because work will be hectic and he was in the middle of a peak period after all.

 

“So, what’s up? What’s with the call? Please tell me that you actually cared.” Chan Yeol chuckled through the line and Baek Hyun hated how went almost comatose against the mattress from the dip of the other man’s voice, so deep and whiny at the same time and his face felt warm.

 

He felt jittery, feet tingly and chest, hurting.

 

“Well, after all the free dinner and all, I thought that it’s only proper for me to actually care.”

 

Jong Dae had taught so many things to him in their long years of friendship and it was that the best way to avoid any confrontation was to be haughty about it. It didn’t work 80% of the time, but Jong Dae liked to believe in the remaining 20%.

 

“So you do care about me?”

 

Baek Hyun didn’t like how smug the other man’s tone was, and he had fisted the duvet on his torso rather greedily because the thump-thump-thump panicking under his ribcage was confusing as , despite being clear why it was that way.

 

His face felt hot. Chan Yeol was coughing, exhaling and he imagined the man to be smoking now, lips puckering around white stick, chest rise and fall as he exhaled, cascading his feature in a hazy dreamlike quality with the smoke. He’d seen the man doing it before despite how he tried his best no to do so in the elder’s apartment, mentioning something about how he didn’t want to be rude, and he knew the sight was truly something indeed.

 

“Not for you, but more for your hands.”

 

He quickly flushed and he didn’t know that his hand can be that quick to smack his head like it just did seconds ago because Byun Baek Hyun was definitely an idiot. He knew that the reference of ‘hands’ was for a different kind of implication and the way Chan Yeol laughed had been a little huskier than just simply amused.

 

Baek Hyun wanted to die, bury himself in his parents’ garden and just die.

 

Hands, now that was so subtle, what the .

 

But really, what was there to even be subtle anyway?

 

“Ah, yes, my hands. Can do loads of with them and I’ve been told that they worked magic.”

 

His palms were gigantic.

 

The way Chan Yeol spoke sent a weird vibration through the speaker, deep rumbling voice that made his neck felt weird. His face flushed up before his mind decided that it was not okay to do so. And then there was the way his heartbeat seemed to hiccup every once in a while, at the sound of Chan Yeol exhaling, or sighing or laughing.

 

It was all ing weird, he just can’t stress on it enough.

 

“Please don’t tell me there’s any ual reference in this, I’m too tired to play along.” Baek Hyun groaned out. He didn’t know if his request was really, after all, for a different kind of benefit.

 

“If you play nice enough, it might be you at the other end of this papi’s hands, too.” Chan Yeol laughed out.

 

They were quiet after a while, only hearing the sound of each other’s breathing before the college student suddenly breathed out. “Do you want to?” he’d asked and Baek Hyun didn’t know what to make of it.

 

“Want what?” he asked because he wanted to know, needed to hear it because his gut was doing weird things to his chest and his pants.

 

“For me to touch you.” There was definitely no mistake in the hint of want he can hear from the younger man’s voice.

 

“I don’t know,” he hummed out, shifting in under the duvet so that he’ll lie on his side. The phone was laid flat against his cheek so that he didn’t need to hold them and so that it won’t fall. “Are you even good enough?” he asked. It was hard to breath now.

 

“Oh, I am good.” Chan Yeol said, voice breathless. “I’ll turn you stupid, just so you know.”

 

It was sad to think that Baek Hyun had slept that night with a hard on and he was too stubborn to work himself off because Chan Yeol’s deep voice was still echoing in his head like an insistent itch.

 

===

 

The next day had been sluggish.

 

He walked in a little later than 9am, and because he had been working overtime on a daily basis, he can basically clock in at any time that he wanted.

 

The audit firm he worked in pays overtime by giving out time off for every extra hour an employee stayed back. At the rate Baek Hyun was going, staying back every day until well after 10pm, he ought to have at least a week under his belt.

 

Kyung Soo didn’t look the slightest perturbed at his late entrance and if only, continued on with his work. The man had been staying back at the office lately because of the peak period, and when he would usually walk out at 8pm, he now went back around 11-plus.

 

There was a cup of steaming coffee on his cubicle-mate’s desk. Baek Hyun was not the sort of person who needed caffeine to fuel himself up at the beginning of the day, because he didn’t believe in such notion. He settled on his chair routinely, turning on the PC and waited for the machine to boot up.

 

It was strange how it had become a habit for him, to swiftly texting a ‘Just reached the office’ and waiting for an ‘Ok have fun at work!’ before he opened up a folder to mark the beginning of his day. It somehow seemed a bit too domesticated for his standard and Baek Hyun didn’t know what to make of it.

 

Jong Dae was not in the office that day, so naturally when it was lunch time, there was only him and Kyung Soo. They decided that fast food can do no harm, and the red and yellow decorations of McDonald should be comforting enough if not for the fact that it was brimmed with the lunch crowd.

 

Baek Hyun had offered to buy the food while Kyung Soo looked for a table.

 

It was while he was queuing that he received the phone call.

 

Chan Yeol’s voice sounded happy as they resounded over the line.

 

“Missed me?”

 

His deep voice shouldn’t send a shiver down Baek Hyun’s spine, but that was exactly what it did.

 

He, however, feigned nonchalance. He was good like that.

 

“No. What do you want?”

 

The queue was long, there were still five people in front of him and the way Chan Yeol had boisterously laugh made his guts churned confusingly. He turned in his spot, look around the restaurant for Kyung Soo and saw that the man was standing next to a table, glaring down to the four high school boys who were doing nothing, and they had paled up immediately.

 

It wasn’t long before they left and Kyung Soo had taken their seat with the most obnoxious self-satisfied look.

 

That must be his killer face.

 

There was no doubt about it.

 

“What time will you be home tonight?”

 

Baek Hyun turned around to see that the queue had moved, only four more left to go.

 

“As usual, late. Do I even have a life?” He sighed and it pulled out another laugh from the other end.

 

Baek Hyun swore to god that the smile lighting his face up was involuntary.

 

“Look, listen.” Chan Yeol said after a while. “I have to go back early today because I have a midterm tomorrow. Is it okay if we have dinner earlier today?”

 

“But I’ll be home late, Chan Yeol.” Baek Hyun groaned.

 

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just fetch you from work, and then I’ll send you back to the office after we’re done since –wait, you have your car with you today right?”

 

It was impractical. Baek Hyun knew it was, because work was ty and endless and he couldn’t afford wasting time for silly sentiments such as dinner and laughter and smiles.

 

So he didn’t know why he had agreed and why the genuine laughter made his heart skipped a thousand beats.

 

But he was only human, no?

 

===

 

a/n: OMFG I finally updated! Was very busy the whole time, so sorry for being late! Anyway, as you can see, the plot is moving now! Because we all need some loving-loving baekyeol real soon, hell, I need them.

 

In any case, so how was this chapter? Was it ok? Nay? Just leave me a comment or two and lemme know~! XD

 

p/s: Sorry for the lengthy chapter TT^TT