“Get back here, you stupid dog!”

“Hey, don’t go calling my dog stupid just because you can’t freaking hold a leash properly!”

“Well if he had been a normal, smart dog, the leash wouldn’t have slipped out of my hands in the first place!”

Our voices floated into the sky, riding on the breeze and gliding with the falling brown leaves. That morning, I had let myself into Baekhyun’s apartment and given him my very own personal wake up call. He jolted awake to the sounds of ABBA singing Take A Chance On Me right in his ear, with special help from my portable speakers. He rolled right off the bed in shock, landing himself in a mess of sheets with a loud crash.  All I did was stand at the edge of his bed and laugh my off, watching as he ran off towards the toilet in just his boxers and his hands over his chest in an attempt to hide his (mildly built) body.

It was the weekend and his last day of treating me to coffee, and I had secretly plotted to drag him on the gyro-drop at the amusement park, and actually see if he would piss his pants or projectile vomit first. But being the brat that he was, he had to ruin my plans by bringing along both of his small, pesky and extremely loud Chihuahuas, who, in his words, “are too precious to be left alone”. (Which translated to his neighbour having left for a grocery run and with no one left to dog-sit his mutts). And so we settled for a walking his dogs around the park.

But apparently his stupid mutts were not having any of it.

We each took a dog, and the one with the golden piss fur just started gnawing on his leash out of nowhere before making a break for it. The leash slipped right out of my hand and the tiny animal took his tiny legs and ran into the horizon. I broke out into a run after the ball of fluff, all the while thanking the lord that I had chosen to wear sneakers that day. Baekhyun made sure to loop the leash another few times around his palm before picking up his grey pup and taking off after me. I weaved my way through the throngs of kids on the fields, past the stink eyes of their parents, and barely grazed the handbags of the old grandmothers who strolled along the path. With the little still in my view, I channeled whatever remaining energy into my legs before taking a (literal) leap of faith and lunging for the dog. I did a full on baseball slide—those to grass contact types. I heard Baekhyun scream in the back as I dived into the grass and towards his dog.

Suddenly, all I could see was black.

Black, and the faint stench of dog crap.

Was this how I was supposed to go? Was I dead?

Did I crack my skull open in my attempt to save Beakhyun’s damn mutt?

“Get your face out of the dirt and give him back to me!”

No, wait. I was in the worst kind of hell, one where Baekhyun’s screams would haunt me for the rest of eternity—reality.

I could taste the soil before I felt the feeling return in my limbs. With a groan, I lifted my head slowly, registering the wiggling within my hands. The dog even had the nerve to look at me with its beady eyes and bark. Baekhyun’s hands slipped around my body, helping me up as I held on to the dog. My brain may have taken some damage from the dive, and I found myself staring into nothing and my body not exactly responding to my thoughts. Baekhyun’s hands were busy, one preoccupied with carrying his dog and the other dusting off the soil on my clothes and face.

You’d think the dog would cooperate after all that trouble he put me through, but no. The ball of piss yellow was still struggling within my grasp, wiggling his body around and barking. When I finally snapped back to reality, I carefully let the dog down before handing Baekhyun his leash. “Here, you do it,” I wheezed, and walked away, making my way to the nearest bench. I lowered myself onto the bench gradually, feeling my muscles and bones scream in protest. Damn, I probably should hit the gym more often. He followed suit, still holding onto the leash before deciding to tie them around the leg of the bench as a precaution. I leaned against the wood of the seat, letting my head fall back. My eyelids slid shut as the blinding rays of light hit my eyes, and for those few seconds I only felt the sun on my skin and the wind in my dirt-filled hair. A warmth enclosed around my hand, and I raised my head only to see a pair of umber orbs staring right back, a mix of concern and mischief reflected in his gaze. “Told you to tie it around your hand a few more times,” I could only roll my eyes at the tiny grin that began spreading on his lips as he spoke. He nudged me in my side before turning his attention to the field before us, watching as the Frisbees cut through the air and the animal shaped kites filled the blue skies. Unknowingly, my eyes strayed and instead trailed after the pairs of connected hands that littered the park, with the blooming flowers in their eyes and the sun in their smiles.  As if my vision was suddenly clouded over and my mind thrown worlds away, suddenly all I saw was a mop of flaming red a head above everyone else, slowly weaving through the crowds that flooded the park.

“I met someone.”

His voice smacked me out of my daydream, and I whipped my head around to him in surprise.

“Ooooooh. Baekhyun and anonymous sitting in a tree k-i—“

I fell over, Baekhyun’s shove interrupting my song. My laughter filled the air as he sighed, running a hand over his face.

“I’m being serious here, you brat!”

“Okay, okay,” I relented as I sat back up and turned to him, “so, who’d you meet?”

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