wc: 2.3k

A/n: I wrote this at 2 am to procrastinate on studying, so technically you can't blame me for whatever trash you read here. Idk what I'm doing.

Park Chanyeol was holding a white box today.

Whispers filled the classroom. Who would he give it to? He had received so many chocolates from girls on Valentine’s Day, but he only had one box. What if it’s for me? No, what if it’s for me? Share it with me! What do you think it is? Chocolate? Jellies? What if it’s...

Park Chanyeol was staring out the window, nervously tapping his fingers on a small white box today.

Valentine’s Day. Only a month before, but it felt much longer with all of this inner turmoil.

Chanyeol had sat at their usual table that day, waiting for Baekhyun to finish his evening school activities, counting the gifts he had received to distract him.

“I see you’re as popular as ever,” a familiar voice had called from the distance. Baekhyun approached with a skip and sat down at the table, emptying his own bag into a pile of pink and red boxes and bags.

“As are you,” Chanyeol whistled appreciatively, piling up his sweets to make his stack look taller. “Should we count who got more?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve won that title against the entire school,” Baekhyun responded with a laugh.

A small smile began to spread across Chanyeol’s lips. Baekhyun’s laugh was red. Baekhyun’s laugh was pink. It was the mix of emotions in the blush across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, the color of the sunset’s fading hues mixing in the sky, the color of the ribbon Chanyeol was fraying with his fingers on the small bag he was holding in his lap.

“What are we going to do with all of these?” Baekhyun sighed as he leaned against the table and poked at the paper bags, which crinkled under his touch.

“Pile them together like usual and eat them all at once?”

Baekhyun’s nose scrunched. “I’ll let you get the honorary Valentine’s Day sickness by yourself this year.”

Chanyeol glanced at his pile of chocolates, and his stomach churned at the thought of eating them all alone. “Let’s just give them to Sehun.”

Baekhyun laughed, knowing that Sehun would have his own monstrous pile of gifts to complain about, and rested his forehead back onto the table with a sigh. “Yes. Let’s do that.”

Pink was the color of Baekhyun’s voice, tired and worn as it bled from between his lips and leaked to the floor. Pink was the slight curve of Chanyeol’s smile as he watched his friend rest. It was the itch of his fingers, wanting to reach out and pat his head, ruffle his hair, and let those thin strands of hair that smelled of pink, pink, cherry blossoms and sweets slide through his fingers.

It was the color of the bag containing homemade chocolates that Chanyeol slipped onto Baekhyun’s pile of Valentine’s day candies when he wasn’t looking.

Chanyeol snapped out of his thoughts as soon as the bell rang. White box in hand, he stood and exited the classroom, giving no thought to the curious whispers that he left behind in his wake.

He walked calmly through the halls, drawing attention from onlookers, but he didn't notice the stares. He stopped his walk only when he caught the sight of a brunette about to enter the next classroom.

“Baekhyun!”

Baekhyun stopped and turned around, holding his own white box between his fingers. Chanyeol’s heart stopped.

“Ah,” Baekhyun laughed, stepping into the hallway. “You have something to give someone too?”

Chanyeol gave a quick nod but said nothing.

“Same,” Baekhyun mumbled, scratching at his neck as Chanyeol watched that pink blush color his cheeks. “Someone’s chocolates were especially delicious this year.”

Chanyeol’s smile faltered for a second. Baekhyun was simple, usually responding to a girl’s gift with a polite thank you on Valentine’s day, and perhaps a ‘hello’ and a smile when they passed each other in the hallways, but a box on White day was…

Then again, either was more than Chanyeol would offer, which explained the expression on Baekhyun’s face, equally confused by the box in Chanyeol’s hand. Chanyeol hid it behind his back with a loud chuckle, startling Baekhyun from his stupor. “Well in that case, just don’t forget me when you get a girlfriend, Byun Baek,” he teased and patted Baekhyun on the back, before jogging off in the other direction, leaving the brunette behind to stare.

White.

The color of freshly fallen snow. Wings of newly born angels, the feathers of a dove. Pure. Yet to be touched by the dirt of the world.

The color of Baekhyun’s smile before it develops, the moment right before a blush. A stare that is diverted once Chanyeol looks. Fleeting, small things that Chanyeol has never been able to capture, because once he does, they disappear.

A lack of visible color, due to complete reflection of the visible spectrum. Seeing all of the colors at once, and refusing to take any in. In that way, it was the most colorful of them all.

It was everything and nothing.

An empty canvas waiting for an artist to come along and reveal the beautiful photo buried underneath the snow.

Baekhyun was as lively as usual today. From dancing with girls who asked, to cracking jokes about how much white he was wearing, claiming to be love’s angel. He would entertain questions about who his box was for, and always chose to respond with a teasing “Ah, I don’t know~” and Chanyeol would be rendered silent as he watched him smile and laugh, and falling in love with the color white seemed so simple when Baekhyun was radiating it.

Chanyeol has long since fallen in love with Baekhyun’s pink. Spring that brings along with it cherry blossoms, warmth and delight, thawing the frost in Chanyeol’s chest and setting all the butterflies that sought release from his stomach into a rampage. He has kissed Baekhyun’s red in fleeting dreams, small lips that pucker until they’re coiled like blooming roses, soft petals that fall to white bed sheets, he loves me, he loves me not, the color of short cocktail dresses that fall to the floor at the end of the night and seeps into the floorboards, and ends with bodies entangled in silk ribbons as everything bleeds together in the heat of the summer. He laughs with Baekhyun’s oranges and his yellows, cascades of autumn leaves blown away in the wind that tickle innocent fingers that slide their way between another’s, clasping together to stay anchored. He drinks in his browns -- coffees, mochas, lattes collecting on upper lips in frothy mustaches, almost asking to be off by a lover in a café in the midst of winter. He dances with his purples and harmonizes with his blues. He has already fallen in love with all of his colors, including his dark spots of black that stain, yet don’t corrupt, and he kisses the scars that don’t fade. And now he is falling for his white, adoring all the small parts between the others that overlap and bend, refract and reflect, and wrap all of his colors up into a neat little package. And once Chanyeol runs out of colors to love, he’ll repeat the cycle again until they dull and fade and take Baekhyun along with them.

Chanyeol was a romantic at heart, but it was difficult to show it. Unlike Baekhyun, who always knew the right words to say and when to say them. Falling in love with Baekhyun was easy. Getting him to notice that without simultaneously scaring him away was the hard part.

His original plan was to make a bouquet of white roses and a few white chocolate roses mixed in, before deciding that would be much too flashy. But the thought of not providing anything seemed like it would be a mistake. But then again, it would be weird, wouldn’t it? To give him another box after he anonymously gave him chocolates on Valentine’s Day? Would that be burdensome? Would he feel compelled to give him something back?

Yet he ending up with this simple white box of various sweets instead, nervously fraying the edges of the ribbon as he wondered about all the white what ifs.

Baekhyun had never spoken about the extra bag of chocolates. He didn’t ask if Chanyeol had slid in an extra box from his own pile so he wouldn’t have to eat so many. He didn’t point out that he had more than he remembered getting. Chanyeol didn’t know if he even noticed they were there. Or if he even ate them. But Baekhyun was sweet and romantic -- he’d usually eat every girl’s chocolates, the truffles, the cakes, even the ones filled with the jellies that he didn’t like. The thought of Baekhyun savoring Chanyeol’s chocolates led him to spontaneously make them, but dealing with the after effects made him question whether it was worth it. Now that Baekhyun was holding that white box between his thin, pale fingers, Chanyeol could only dream that he would be looking for the girl who had given him the anonymous love letter, hoping that he wouldn’t accidentally give it to someone else. Dreams upon daydreams built in Chanyeol’s mind as he sat, waiting, watching, expecting an act that never occurred.

Chanyeol rested his head against the table, lazily drawing his finger around the edges of his box while waiting for Baekhyun to finish his after school activities. The sun was already beginning to set, painting the sky with a mess of soft colors, oranges, reds, and pinks blending together in harmony across the horizon, split only by Baekhyun walking toward him, holding a white box.

Chanyeol sat up. “You didn’t give her the box?”

Baekhyun bumped Chanyeol’s side as he sat down next to him. “Neither did you.”

Chanyeol frowned, looking down to his own box. “A little bit shy, I guess.”

“Shy,” Baekhyun asked, throwing his head back with a sigh. “That’s my reason; make up your own.”

Chanyeol pursed his lips. “I just… didn’t know how to do it.”

“Hmm…”

Baekhyun leaned against Chanyeol and let his eyes close, and Chanyeol’s chest began to flutter again.

Chanyeol didn’t know when this began. And honestly, he hoped it would never end. But if he could pause time right now, so he could just sit here and admire the way Baekhyun’s hair fell across his forehead and closed eyelids, if he could admire the delicate curve of his long eyelashes, the smooth bump of his lightly freckled nose, the twitch of the corners of his pink lips, he would be happy, just like this.

A poke at Chanyeol’s side diverted his attention.

“Here,” Baekhyun mumbled with a groan, shoving the corner of his white box into Chanyeol’s side. “Thank you… for the chocolates.”

Chanyeol stared down to the box and then over to his friend in silence. Baekhyun peeked at Chanyeol out of the corner of his eyes before immediately looking away and letting his eyes close. “Sehun recognized the bag.”

Damn it, Sehun.

Baekhyun shuffled in his seat and spoke again. “You’re… better at making chocolate than I am, but these are homemade, if melting chocolate chips into molds counts as homemade, and you know I’m bad at this stuff, but…”

Chanyeol could only watch as Baekhyun stuttered on, his voice filling with pink as his cheeks filled with red, the first splatters of paint on their blank canvas, small and tentative, and slowly began to run down the easel as the color spreads.

“Just take it so I can run away and make this less awkward than it already is.”

Chanyeol cleared his throat, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful way Baekhyun’s skin was glowing with this new color of embarrassment as he softly responded, “It’s already pretty awkward; I don’t think anything will alleviate that.”

Baekhyun squeezed his eyes closed, soft blush spreading across his nose and to his ears as it turned a deeper shade of red, and Chanyeol can feel his heart fluttering in his chest, rhythmic pounds against his ribcage for being the cause of this new hue of Baekhyun, and he couldn’t help but wonder what other colors he could make him show. Baekhyun shook the box in front of Chanyeol, shifting the contents inside. “Make this easier and take the box, or else I’ll just throw it away.”

“I’ll take it. God forbid you waste all your hard work,” Chanyeol smiled, reaching out for the box, but Baekhyun took it away, finally opening his eyes to glare at his friend.

“On second thought, I’m sure the trash can would appreciate it more.”

“Noooo, Baekhyun-ah~” Chanyeol whined, childishly grasping for the box, “I want to taste your homemade melted chocolates!”

Baekhyun frowned, tapping the top of Chanyeol’s head with the box, before pushing it in front of him. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Chanyeol took the box from Baekhyun’s small hands, barely holding back from placing his hands over Baekhyun’s to warm them, spreading pink and red back into his shivering, white fingers. Chanyeol looked up to him with a smile. “You think I’m cute?”

“No,” Baekhyun responded with a shove, pink blush finally touching the tips of his ears as he stood from the small table and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his white sweatshirt as he began to walk away. “Not cute at all,” he muttered under his breath.

“No, wait, you can’t just leave me here!” Chanyeol called after him, struggling to untangle his legs from the bench and stand. “You should at least feed them to me!”

“Shut up, Park!” Baekhyun shouted back.

“But what about my box for you? Baekhyun, accept mine too!”

And if only Chanyeol could see the colors mixing on Baekhyun’s face as he ran after him, Chanyeol would find a new shade of Baekhyun to fall in love with all over again.