green - main characters
faded green - already set couples
blue - friendship
dotted blue - aqcuaintance
* Please note: This chart describes the situation at the end of their story.
 

Xiumin was annoyed. So very annoyed. The source of his distress was not far away. It never was.
"Xiumin Hyung~ Why are you running away?", a loud voice boomed behind him, as he stopped to sharply turn around.
"I'm not running anywhere, I'm simply going to my next class.", he stated curtly.
"But why aren't you waiting for me?"
"Why in the world would I? I have no interest in talking to you. Go to your own class.", Xiumin huffed as he re-adjusted his bookbag over his shoulder and continued on his way.
Unfortunately those seconds had been enough for the lanky figure to catch up to him. Instead of being disappointed or put-off, he simply laughed happily, walking closely by his side. "But Hyung, my class is close to yours, have you never noticed? Let's walk there together from now on!"
Xiumin didn't even try to hide his annoyed groan.
"Why can't you just leave me alone already?! We're as different as day and night!" 
"Actually I think we're quite similar, don't you see it?"  
He simply glared forwards, snapping: "I don't see anything. At all."
Undeterred, Chanyeol kept babbling happily.
"After this class you're free, right? How about spending lunch together with us?"
"No."
"Oh, you don't want to be around so many people, right? I can as well come over to you, they won't mind~"
Xiumin sighed in exhaustion as his personally assigned pest kept on chatting about whatever, blatantly ignoring every sign of rejection he voiced out.

Chanyeol was a loud person. On the first day of high school Xiumin had already been forced to acknowledge Chanyeol's existence. While he transferred from another city, the much younger guy had been attending the integrated lower classes. Even though younger, he was much taller than Xiumin himself(which was not that much of a challenge, admittedly), but had a very deep and manly voice nevertheless, which was already slightly annoying, because: no fair.
Most of the time he didn't even try to quiet down in any way. Everything about him was loud and obnoxious - the way he talked, laughed and even moved, more often than not running into whatever was even remotely close to him.

Xiumin was a quiet person. Even though he was wearing the dark-red tie marking him as a gifted one -one of the rare and dangerous level 1, no less- people tended to forget about him. He just went to school, attended classes and made up for his quiet presence with his detailed and accurately written assignments. He was rather short, and had a very young-looking face with round-ish cheeks and rather big single-lidded eyes. Below his attire, however, he was rather muscular and not petite in any way. Not that anyone at school would know, since he wasn't one to flaunt anything. And even in changing rooms people would rarely pay attention to him in the first place. Unnoticed by anyone he moved through his life.
Sometimes he even went to a supermarket to find his voice rather raspy, when greeting the cashier. Only then would he realise that he hadn't spoken a word in days.
That was, until he met Chanyeol. Or rather, until Chanyeol met him.

Chanyeol was a very curious person. Interested in anything and everything as well as able to develop a genuine enthusiasm for all of it, he was someone who easily started up conversations. Of course Chanyeol also went up to talk to Xiumin in his first afterclass for gifted ones.
He asked for his name and age as well as his gift, which Xiumin willingly gave out. But when he followed with endless questions about his favourite subjects, his hobbies and family, Xiumin already knew he should keep his distance to the overly excited teenager.
For Xiumin was nowhere near interested in the people around him; he was a secretive person and saw no logic in invading others' privacy, while he himself wouldn't be willing to give anything in return. With the time going by he learned to simply shoo Chanyeol away, whenever the latter decided he wanted to be sociable with him.
Chanyeol would take it with a smile and retreat, only to try again a few days or weeks later.
But ever since spring, his behaviour had changed and Xiumin had found his vision blocked by his ridiculously tall figure immediately on the day after. And the next day, as well.
He had no idea what was going on, but Chanyeol wouldn't stop searching his company. Even though Xiumin didn't hesitate to use pretty harsh words, rejecting whatever his loud voice would propose, he didn't relent. After a few weeks, Xiumin wasn't even sure anymore whether Chanyeol was too dumb to take the hint or just straight-out ignoring it.

It's probably obvious by now, but Chanyeol was very well-known and popular around the whole school. Even though he had his small and fixed group of friends, he was on a friendly basis with most people, greeting people with a friendly smile wherever he went.
However, he also had his fair share of enemies. Out of all gifted people at school, he was the one most instable. His power being fire, there had been countless incidents where he accidently burned something... or someone. It wasn't that he was an aggressive person, looking for trouble. But he tended to stand in for anyone he deemed mistreated. As a follow-up he got into fights with the bullies and even street-gangs if he had once again put his nose where it didn't belong. And even though he really tried to keep his power at bay, since he wasn't keen on getting home-schooled, he messed up more often than not.
He also stood in for Xiumin, even though the shorter one didn't acknowledge him for that at all.
As we heard before, Xiumin was very quiet, not drawing any attention to himself. Still, because he was short and kind of cute, once in a while some wannabe's tried to make themselves look tough by verbally(or not so verbally) attacking him. They called him names and tried to provoke him into loosing his temper, stating he was a coward for not using his gift. No one at school had ever seen Xiumin using his gift. Because unlike Chanyeol, Xiumin was in excellent control over it, being the second-best in his afterclasses. No power would seep out in any way. Besides that, Xiumin's composure resembled his element perfectly, meaning even if people went up to him and publicly threw insults at him: He didn't care. At all.
People could shove him, laugh at him, threaten him: He couldn't care less. It wasn't that he was scared or intimidated in any way, he just wasn't fazed.
Well ok, maybe the number of those incidents had increased this year. Everyone seemd to have forgotten how potentially dangerous a gifted one on level 1 could be. No one took him seriously, and some even began to speculate he had no gift at all.
But, still, Xiumin didn't care.
Chanyeol, however, did care.
Whenever he was around to wittness people annoying Xiumin, he would in, telling them to cut it out. Seeing as Chanyeol was a far more visible threat, the cowards would back off quickly. He had never gotten a "Thank you" in return, or anything, really. Xiumin would always just walk past everyone, simply going on with his day. Not bothered the least, Chanyeol would continue standing in for him.
Still, one day he had enough. Xiumin, that is.

Summer was about to end, but the sun was still shining brightly. The sky was crystal clear and school had barely started again when Xiumin had found himself already pushed against a wall close to the school building with a rough shove. With a bored gaze he checked the shoulder of his uniform for dirt, when the guy's hand roughly gripped his hair, forcing him to look his way. He just opened his mouth to probably spat some more uncreative insults, as the all too familiar voice called out to them.
"YAH, what are you doing there!"
His bullies -who's name he didn't even care to know- looked around to see a quickly approaching Chanyeol. Xiumin only rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"What's your problem, he never did anything to offend anyone!", Chanyeol voiced out angrily.
The bully that still had his dirty hand in Xiumin's hair, holding him up rather painfully, just snorted. "Well, maybe his FACE his offending me." Chanyeol reached out to grab his arm tightly, forcing him to eventually let go with a painful whimper. The tall guy kept calm, but nevertheless had his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. "Well, it's not his fault that you're ugly. If you would please leave now and cry about your inferiority complex to someone else, thank you."
The guy's eyes were radiating of anger. Suddenly he shook off Chanyeol's hand as if he had been burnt, which had probably been the case. "You're such a loser, Park Chanyeol. Lately you've been around this pathethic guy a lot; is his gayness maybe rubbing off on you? No one cares about your knight-in-shining-armor-attitude, not even this here. Just save it."
Chanyeols eyes narrowed slightly, before he broke out in mock surprise, still keeping his voice composed. "Oh, you know who I hang out with? What a surprise... Considering I don't even know your name." Even Xiumin couldn't help but look at him questioningly; he had never seen Chanyeol getting sarcastic like that.
"Now get. Lost.", he curtly said with a final tone. Begrudgingly, the guys trotted away, not without leaving some last embarrassing insults lingering in the air as they went around the corner.
Chanyeol followed them with his eyes until they got out of sight, before relaxing his posure and groaning. "Yeesh, what's up with those people! Don't they have any hobbies?!", he ranted, throwing his hands in the air. Then he swiftly turned around to Xiumin.
"You alright? Did they ruin your uniform?"
When he reached out his hand to touch the fabric of his jacket, Xiumin backed away a little, shooting him a glare. "Don't touch me.", he hissed angrily. Chanyeol wore his unfazed 'Oh well, whatever'-face, and retreated his hand, instead opting to look around him to check for any dirt, when Xiumin snapped.
"Say, what the hell is your problem, anyway?", he began with a deceivingly quiet voice full of barely repressed anger. The tall guy interrupted his awkward tries to get a look at Xiumin's back to look at him questioningly with this big, brown eyes of him. "Me? What's with me?"
Xiumin inhaled deeply, trying hard not to throw anything at him in pure frustration.
"Not only have you been following me around for months now, bothering me every single day, you also keep doing this.", he gestured at their surroundings, his voice steadily raising, "Have you still not noticed that I'm absolutely not interested in becoming friends with you?! Neither am I depending on your perpetual 'saving'; can't you see that I don't give a about those people?! Are you blind or just plain stupid?!"
Xiumin breathed heavily and crossed his arms, angrily staring (up) at Chanyeol. Said one's eyes had become even bigger, but he didn't waste any time, answering on the spot with his head slightly tilted to the side, his voice almost neutral as if stating a fact:
"You don't care, I can see that. But I do."
"Well then stop it!"
"How could I stop caring?", he asked, innocent confusion all over his face.
"You're so-... Ugh!", he exclaimed in annoyance, not even knowing how to describe it anymore. In a fit of resignation, he tiredly sighed and asked: "Chanyeol. What the hell do you want from me?"
At this, the lanky guy became surprisingly quiet and kept looking at him. Then he averted his gaze and looked around, clearly thinking about his answer. It seemed as if he himself hadn't really thought about that yet. After a few moments, he looked back at Xiumin with that ridiculously bright smile of his.
"How about your phone number?"

Xiumin should have known better. Still, he had been too tired to resist. He could always just ignore whatever this hyperactive guy would text him.
And texting he did. He obviously didn't even pretend to seem un-eager. Instead, he got his first text message that evening.

From: Yeol
Hello Xiumin Hyung~
Now u have my number, too ٩(๑>◡<๑)۶

Needless to say that Xiumin didn't answer.
(What kind of ridiculous smiley was that even?) - He didn't even change Chanyeol's KakaoTalk nickname to something more formal. However, he did open the chat, just so that the little yellow one would disappear. This way, he'd clearly make the statement of having seen the message but not caring to answer it at all. Or that's what he told himself.
Xiumin didn't have a lot of friends, so one chatroom more made a big difference, actually. Especially such an active one. Well, one-sidedly active one. For Chanyeol made it a habit of texting him one message every morning and every evening, on top of being all up in his personal space all day long. Xiumin didn't even talk about those messages during the day, since it would somehow mean acknowledging them. You can already see, he's a stubborn one. Or rather, they both were.
So the days flew by with this short messages, that beared no terribly important content at all.

From: Yeol
Good morning Hyung~! （-＾〇＾-）
Don't oversleep!
Kkk, just kiddin', I know u never do
See u later~ :3
P.S.:
It's gonna rain later, don't forget your umbrella D:

From: Yeol
Hyung, did u have dinner already?
I wanna eat italiaaaan....
Y is italian so expensive here?! （；￣д￣）
I'll go pester Baekhyun about it, kkk
Sleep well later (✿◡‿◡ฺ)zzz

It might sound sad, but those messages that started out a nuisance, soon became part of Xiumin's daily life. Even if only to scoff at the weird emoticons. Very secretly he even waited for the annoying KakaoTalk jingle from time to time, looking at his phone (expectantly), wondering whether Chanyeol was the one oversleeping. So when one friday evening, his phone stayed quiet, he didn't know what to make of it.
Well, maybe Chanyeol was busy.
Still no early message on Saturday.
Maybe he forgot his phone.
Satuday evening.
Maybe he has some kind of date.
Sunday morning.
Maybe he just finally got a life.
Sunday evening.

From: Yeol
Hyuuuung ｡ﾟ･（>﹏<）･ﾟ｡
I'm so sorryyy... My phone broke down (._.)
A friend repaired it, though! Lucky~!
Did u miss me?
Kkk

To: Yeol
Keep dreaming.

From: Yeol
Omg, u answered~!
It seems today really is my lucky day ٩(^ᴗ^)۶

Xiumin had replied without thinking, and now internally beat himself up for acting so carelessly. He shouldn't have reacted. What now? Pretending it never happened? He would think Xiumin was flustered. Which he wasn't. Then his phone beeped again.

From: Yeol
I'm gonna memorize this day in my calendar

To: Yeol
Wtf, Park Chanyeol.

...An incoming screenshot of a mobile phone calendar, showing an annual event called: 'Xiumin-Hyung missed me for the first time (^ᴗ^)'

To: Yeol
You're such a .

From: Yeol
At your service~! (・ω・)v

From there on, there was no turning back. Xiumin still refused to regularly answer, but every once in a while he would text back, even if only to tell him he's being annoying. Again, neither of them mentioned their texts at school, as if they had never happened. Xiumin was wondering why he kept quiet about them, even though he bothered him so much with all the irrelevant nonsense he picked up every day.
"...So I've decided to go shopping with Sehunnie on Friday, but Baekhyun rejected us again! I'm actually really worried about him, I wonder why he wouldn't talk to me..."
"Maybe he doesn't get a chance in between your rambling. I could imagine."
"Nooo... No no, Baekkie's one of my best friends, we talk about everything! Still, he seems kinda stressed and tired lately...When I tried to get through to him, he got really angry though and snapped at me to mind my own business..."
Xiumin threw him a side-glance. It was rare to see Chanyeol seriously down, but he seemed to genuinely worry about his friend. Even ice-cold Xiumin wasn't heartless enough for a snarky remark.
Unknowingly, his features softened, as did his voice.
"Maybe you should give him some time. Stay close, though. That way you'll reassure both of you and put him more at ease. That's your strength anyway, isn't it?"
The smile he got in return wasn't the usual overly bright one, but instead a more mellow, but grateful one.
"Okay, Hyung. Thank you."
They both got quiet as they walked down the streets. For some reason, Chanyeol had started to walk beside him after school, and neither of the guys had talked about why he was following him on his way home. Maybe the shorter one was just beyond caring at that point.
The seemingly serious atmosphere made him kinda anxious, though. He couldn't help but wonder, for even if he saw the dumb guy on a daily basis, this had been the first time he got such a reaction. It dawned on him that he actually didn't even know a lot about Chanyeol in the first place. He just knew that he was a tall, hyperactive guy with the gift of fire who lived with his roommate Baekhyun. Yeah, surely Chanyeol talked about a lot of stuff, but something was bothering Xiumin. And if there was one thing certain about Xiumin, it was that he was a straight-forward person.
"Yah, Chanyeol.", he broke the quiet atmosphere.
He immediately lifted his head, sending his mess of hair bouncing.
"Say... You talk about so much nonsense all day. How come you never talk about yourself?"
To this, the tall one just shrugged.
"Well, you never asked."
Xiumin looked at him skeptical, though he wouldn't meet his gaze.
"That's it?"
He got an affirmative hum in response.
"Yeah. That's it."
"So whatever I asked, you would just answer?"
"Yeah, sure."
Xiumin himself didn't know why exactly he was this intrigued. Still, he couldn't help himself but to push him a little further.
"So why are you following me home right now?"
"Hm... I didn't plan on doing so. I just meant to talk to you a little until we passed my station, but then we kinda got caught up talking. Still, the weather is nice and I have nothing important to do, so I figured I could as well keep going a little."
Xiumin gave a scrutinizing hum, thinking of the next question.
"Why do you keep protecting people from bullies, even though you always end up in more trouble than them?"
"Well, it just should be done by someone. And I figured since I have the means of protecting people, I should put them to good use."
The shorter one searched his eyes, that occasionally flitted over to him with that happy smile of his. He didn't find anything hypocrithal, which annoyed him somehow.
"So why do you keep defending me, even though I clearly don't want you to?"
"I just don't want to see you getting hurt. I told you, I care."
Xiumin narrowed his eyes at this.
"So if you care for whatever reason, why don't you care if people insult you? Why don't you care for yourself?"
"Huh? Wait, let me think about it...", he began, tapping his jaw absentmindedly.
"I think people are right about my gift being unstable. So when people try to provoke me, I don't let them get to me. Oh, but somehow their words mostly don't even hurt me in the first place. It's like random strangers saying stuff to me even though they don't even know me, I couldn't get hurt over that. ...Does that make any sense?"
Now Xiumin was a little surprised; he wouldn't have imagined Chanyeol being so well-thought.
"Actually that was the most logic thing you ever said."
The tall guy gave an unmanly giggle which turned out weird due to his deep voice.
After a while he turned to his quiet Hyung. "Is that what you feel as well? About those people bothering you?"
There was no immediate answer, making him shrug again, but keeping the small smile on his face.
"Ah, I guess it's not my day to give questions, then~"
But after a few more silent moments, Xiumin hummed in affirmation, kinda nervously tugging at the strap of his bag and not meeting his eye.
"...Yeah. So... Will you stop doing this useless things now?"
Chanyeol nodded in understanding.
"Nope~", he beamed, making a popping-sound out of the p.
"Ugh, why?! And don't you dare asking anymore questions!", Xiumin broke out and went back to the interview, or rather the interrogation-like character of their conversation. A really tiny part of him was relieved though.
Relieved, that Chanyeol wouldn't give up that easily.
Said one blinked innocently. "Was that a question as well?"
"Nevermind. Next question.", Xiumin commanded to hide his emotions.
"Why are you so stupidly honest?"
"Because I like your interest in me."
At this, his heart unintentionally fluttered, but he wouldn't show it.
"So that means you're not honest to everyone else?"
"Well, I am a terrible liar. However, if I don't want to talk, I simply refuse to do so."
"Hm... So tell me something you wouldn't give out if any random person asked you."
"My phone number~!"
"..."
Somehow, this was like a game. Ask your question smartly and you'll get the right answer.
And weirdly enough it sparked some of Xiumin's competitve nature. He felt as if he was testing Chanyeol, seeing how far he could push him, while at the same time probing his proclaimed affection.
"Now something you wouldn't tell Sehun."
"Hm. I never tell him about the people pestering me about him; to give him love letters and the likes. He's pretty sensitive and it would make him nervous."
"Ok. Now something you wouldn't tell Baekhyun."
Not even that made Chanyeol pause. Without blinking an eye said:
"I had a crush on his girlfriend once. A pretty big one, nontheless."
"Really now? So you like girls?", Xiumin asked, not missing a beat and hoping that he wouldn't think too much into this question.
"Naw, I don't know. I guess if it's love, things like that come second."
"So did you, like... Approach her?"
"No way! She was my best friends' girlfriend! I protected the both of them from everything!"
"Ugh, don't you have any ugly trait at all?!"
"Huh? I have plenty! ...Wait, I shouldn't be proud about that."
"Like what?"
"First off, I can be incredibly lazy. Oh, and my whole life's some sort of big, uncoordinated mess that spreads and infects people like a disease. Or so Baekhyun likes to put it. I think it's his dramatic way of calling me a pest. A true best friend."
"So, this is my doorstep.", Xiumin suddenly said. They had reached a rather modern-looking apartment complex. Both of them didn't say a word for a moment. Then Xiumin inhaled deeply to gather the courage for one last question.
"Why me?", he asked with a calm and serious tone.
And when their eyes met, Chanyeol knew exactly what he was talking about. He didn't avert his gaze, his voice soft and firm.
"I don't know."
And again, he could see nothing but truth in his shining eyes. He nodded lightly to himself, turning around to step inside the building.
"Hyung, wait!"
He faced him one more time. Somehow, he looked like an abandoned puppy. A far too tall one.
"Can I ask only one question?"
Xiumin kept quiet at this, unsure if he would be able to easily give heartfelt answers like that. Chanyeol seemed to sense that, and just went on.
"Can we go home together again?"
He let the relieved sigh come out as an annoyed groan as he turned around to type in the code to the door.
"God, you need a hobby. Whatever. See ya."
Then he went inside, taking the steps as to not having to wait for the elevator.
Interpreting the 'Whatever' as an 'But of course, I enjoyed it very much', Chanyeol broke into his typical abnormally wide smile.
Certainly, his interpretation couldn't be too far off.

The conversation left Xiumin confused and he spent the rest of the day inside his flat, sitting in his favourite spot - On the comfy carpet at the high window, watching the bustling street far below, most people no bigger than ants to him. Far away from all the stressful emotions and hectic lifes down there. Still, he already knew that Baekhyun was more than right; for associating with Chanyeol had already brought part of the chaos inside his head.

The encounter had left Xiumin even more intrigued. He kept thinking about this guy with the weird smile and even weirder hair. He just couldn't believe Chanyeol was so open about everything - and especially, that he was supposedly more open to him than to others. He just seemed like the type of person to like everyone equally.
It became some sort of inner challenge for Xiumin to find out more about Park Chanyeol. Instead of flat-out asking him, however, he began to silently observe him. There were plenty of opportunities, after all.
The following Saturday he saw him at the special afterclasses. While he pretended to get mentally ready or something like that, flexing his fingers absentmindedly, his eyes wandered off to Chanyeol, who was paired up with Sehun. They were engaging in a competition of skill, where Chanyeol would randomly create tiny flames and Sehun put them out as quickly and precisely as possible. Considering that he was labelled terribly instable Xiumin found he was doing pretty well, always being a few flames ahead of a very concentrated looking Sehun, while keeping his playful smile all the while.
If he thought about it Chanyeol had always had lots of energy; maybe that was the problem in the first place. While watching him through the various excercises he came to the conclusion that Chanyeol excelled at most tasks, just failing those miserably, where reaction was asked(or not asked, for that matter). It seemed as if his body was reacting uncontrollably when faced with a possibly threat. That also explained why he was always holding himself on a short leash when faced with any kind of enemy.
'Again, we're so very different.', Xiumin thought. He would never lash out at anyone with his gift out of anger or fear, he was in total control. But still...
Then someone stepped into his vision.
"Hey, Xiumin Hyung. You're clearly not concentrating.", Suho scolded softly.
Xiumin blinked. "Yes. I'm sorry. You don't need to call me Hyung, though. You're my teacher, remember?"
"Suho Hyung, don't be mean to him~", the teleportation user, who had just appeared besides us, chirped happily, "He's so good already, I'm sure he's bored."
"Oh, he still has plenty to learn.", Suho answered with a serene smile only Xiumin knew the truth behind. There was a reason Baekhyun was the best in class and not him. No one really saw the difference between them, but Suho could tell. Since secretly he was terribly bad at dealing with his gift when confronted with emotion or skinship of any kind. When he had a few years ago caused his sister Sohee serious frost-bites during a hug, sending her to the hospital for a few days, Xiumin had decided to move out and live on his own. That way, he could prevent any more accidents as well as keep his parents from worrying about his (lack of a) social life. This may or may not have been another reason for the boy's distant ways.
"Hyung, are you alright?", he heard the familiar deep voice from behind him, accompanied by a hand on his shoulder. Flinching, Xiumin stepped away from his hold, and whirled around furiously.
"I told you not to touch me!", he lashed out angrily.
"Woah, Hyung - You're the only one that can make Xiumin Hyung that angry! People can ignore him, insult him or kick him and he won't bat an eyelash - but a mere 'Hello' from you and he'll go through the roof!", Kai laughed brightly, before teleporting to the other end of the room, escaping our possible anger at his cheekiness. Instead Xiumin felt like blushing, though. Kai was young, but had always had a good eye for people; it was basically the proof that Xiumin cared about Chanyeol in whatever way.
"Enough of this.", Suho fell in, clapping his hands at a sudden idea.
"As you're both here already, why don't you two train together for a while?"

Even though observing Chanyeol with hawkeyes, he still couldn't find a thing to hint that he had been anything but completely honest to him. It irked him for some reason. When and why did this tall, overly bubbly person start to build up genuine affection for him, a short and gloomy guy?
Maybe he just wanted to be friends with everyone, he thought. Then again, he seemed to be trying a little too hard, didn't he?
All the thinking just left Xiumin more confused. Anyways, operation 'trying to understand what's going on in Park Chanyeol's head' was still ongoing.

From: Yeol
Good evening Hyung~
I hope you're feeling well.
Sleep well later~

Xiumin furrowed his brows. Huh. It had been a while since Chanyeol had written a message that short and impersonal. If he had ever. Not to mention the lack of ridiculous emoticons. He couldn't help but feel that something was off.

To: Yeol
Yah, what an exchangable and irrelevant message.

- Everything alright?

As usual he didn't have to wait long for an answer.

From: Yeol
U shouldn't worry too much about others Hyung~
People will find out about your gentle heart - what are you gonna do? (^_−)☆

To: Yeol
Wth
Would you please take me seriously, I'm not an idiot, you know?

When the answer didn't came immediately, he couldn't help but add something, being quite angry.

To: Yeol
You always go on about how you want to be friends with me
And how you'd tell me basically anything
Yet you've never once written a negative thing
Don't tell me your life's all sunshine and rainbows

How am I supposed to believe you anything?

The yellow '1' vanished immediately.
A minute passed. And another. Xiumin kept staring at his display in a disgruntled mood. He felt as if Chanyeol in a way looked down on him. Then again he felt almost bad, since the words seemed even nastier typed out like that.
After another minute, he finally received a message - an address.

From: Yeol
Care to come over, then?
I can't exactly go out atm

To: Yeol
Give me 20 min.

Xiumin was curious, to say the least. So without thinking too much, he typed an answer, threw some comfortable clothes on and left the house in a matter of three minutes.
Only when he was half-way there, did he realize something.
'Care to come over?' - Well, did he care?

Chanyeol's shared room with Baekhyun was exactly that - shared. You could exactly make out which side of the room was his, as it was almost drowning in chaos. Not only that, you could even make out the gradient where it went over to Baekhyuns rather clean side - Again, he agreed with Baekhyun's statement of Chanyeol infecting his surroundings, since his side of chaos obviously began to slowly threaten consuming Baekhyun's side as well.
Chanyeol greeted him rather sheepishly.
"Oh, hey. You actually came. Come in. Oh, uh... It's kinda messy. Sorry. Just sit on the bed, I'll get some tea. Or would you rather like coffee?", he began, as he walked over to the small kitchen area.
"Coffee would be nice.", he replied neutrally and waited patiently while Chanyeol rummaged through the cupboards in search of whatever he needed.
Somehow, he felt a little awkward now that he was sitting here on Chanyeol's bed - which was thankfully free of clothing and all the other stuff. The room was so crammed with stuff that it amazed him he hadn't tripped.
Of course it shouldn't even have come as that much of a surprise to him,
since he had by then realized, that Chanyeol was the picture-perfect opposite of him.
And since he himself was so clean his friend for bordering on OCD, of course Chanyeol would be messy as hell.
Everything was like one of those children's games, where you'd look at a messy picture, being asked: 'Search for 5 blue socks'!
Xiumin looked around, practically hearing the questions in his head.
'How many basecaps can you see?' - About 9? I wonder if there are even more around?
'Find the drumsticks!' - There, in the cup on the desk. Why does he even have-
'Can you see any food?' - Only candy. Thank God, that would have been gross.
'Count the Comic-books!' 22, 23,-
"There you go~!", Chanyeol interrupted him, offering him a cup of freshly brewed coffee. God, it smelled like heaven to the shorter one, who accepted thankfully.
Chanyeol put his cup of tea down onto the desk and gripped a bunch of clothing from his only chair to put it somewhere else(Where it didn't belong either), to flop himself down.
The awkwardness began seeping back, but obviously Chanyeol wouldn't let that happen.
"So, yeah. I'm sorry.", he began straight-forwardly, looking directly at Xiumin, who had raised the cup and then halted the movement.
"What for?"
Now Chanyeol reached for his tea cup. For a fleeting moment Xiumin wondered how he could the hot cup like that- Ah, right. Fire gift. It probably wasn't even hot for him.
"You know... I only ever wanted to write positive things to make you a little more happy. Since you don't seem to be too keen on... Well, people in general-" Xiumin couldn't keep his grin at that. So the dork wasn't that oblivious, either.
"-I just figured you wouldn't want to hear anyones' trouble. But when you wrote me that last bit... I realised that it was like thinking low of you. I'm sorry if you felt like that, it wasn't my intention at all...", now Chanyeol began to lightly laugh over his own mistake, ruffling through his hair in a flustered manner.
"I'm just an idiot, so I realize stuff like that later than most people, haha~"
"So what has been troubling you?", Xiumin flat-out asked. His posture slumped a little and his smile faded.
"It's about Baekhyun... Today was a very important day for him. He auditioned for a huge talent agency." Xiumin raised a brow at that. Man, he really did know nothing about, well, 'people in general', obviously.
"It's a really big deal for him, he has been training for months. Still, not only didn't he come home, he also didn't answer any of my calls ever since. I don't know where could have went. Maybe he didn't pass, but he wouldn't get wasted without his friends... Or would he?", Chanyeol kept fussing, while he nervously moved the cup around in his hands.
"First you drink your tea. Slowly.", Xiumin instructed, to which he obeyed without questions.
He looked at his wristwatch. "At what time was the audition supposed to be?"
"Afternoon, around 3 or 4." Huh, it was already 9 P.M. That was indeed a little weird, then.
"Okay. So how about we go search for him? First, you'll write down some places where he could have gone to. Then we'll go through them in a logical order.", he calmly stated. The sentence wasn't even finished before the tall boy had grasped a pen and began scribbling. "Then we'll leave a note inside the apartment, so that he'll call you, if he returns before we do. Got it?" Chanyeol nodded eagerly. "You are just the best, Hyung!"

That evening they spent hours looking for Baekhyun, without success.
Still, Xiumin kept on calming him down, as Baekhyun was a grown man who even was decidedly more mature than Chanyeol himself and a gifted one on top of that.
"But he was so sick lately... God, it's all my fault, I didn't watch out properly-", he would whine in response.
Honestly, Xiumin felt a little bad at that. After all, it had been his suggestion to give Baekhyun some space.
Maybe it was this guilt that caused him to ask for a sleep-over at Chanyeol's.
He somehow couldn't leave the tall idiot alone when he was worried and sad like that.

"...But you don't expect me to sleep in this mess, right?", he inquired, now a little hesitant of his choice.
"Of course not, not on the floor, Hyung. You go sleep on my bed, I'll take Baekhyuns."
Still hesitant, Xiumin sat down on his bed again, giving it an inspecting look.
"Y-yah, it's clean, okay? I changed the bed sheets just two days ago!", Chanyeol said while blushing a little.
"I can still change them, if you prefer-"
"It's ok."
"Oh, okay, then... Uhm...", Chanyeol ended kinda awkwardly, before he went to his closet to get out some pajamas out of the pile of chaos.
"There you go, Hyung." Again, he received a rather judging look.
"Ugh, this is clean as well, I get the feeling your mistrusting me!", he replied in his mix of playful frustration and genuine embarrassment.
"Well, can you blame me?", Xiumin said, looking pointedly around, but reaching for the clothing nevertheless.
When he returned from the bathroom, he wore a pretty blank face.
Chanyeol couldn't help but chuckling.
"It's far too large. No surprise, but still.", he monotonously said while trudging to Chanyeol's bed, trying hard not to trip over his pants' seam. Chanyeol really wanted to coo at his adorable look, but was smart enough to surpress it.
"Sorry... Baekhyun's would probably fit better, but while he's not here... Touch his clothes ad he'll go berserk on you. He'll laser me to a pile of ash."
"It's ok."
The bedsheets had the distinct smell of Chanyeol, which was kind of unfamiliar but not bad. Making himself comfortable, he heard the slight rustling from the end of the room, signalising Chanyeol had slipped under the covers as well.
When they both found a comfortable position he switched of the light and darkness enveloped them, along with silence.
Xiumin cursed himself again for being so anti-social and awkward. Probably Chanyeol was regretting having him over by now. Couldn't he do anything right?
"So... Thank you for staying, Hyung."
"Just... Stop calling me Hyung. Formalities don't even suit you."
Again, it came out more rude than intended. Ugh.
"Really? Are you sure? Okay. Thank you... ...Xiumin."
Though they couldn't see each other(which was probably better for both of them),  Chanyeol was grinning like a giddy teenage girl.
And Xiumin, on the other side was blushing a slight pink upon hearing his name being called in this intimate way. Especially by that deep voice.
He sighed quietly. Why was he even pulled towards that (admittedly attractive)dork that was everything he wasn't?
 

Aaaa~nd I'm back again!
So quickly... I guess I need a life.
*A-hem* Anyways, this couple was my initial inspiration to start all of... this! *making weird gestures*
Sorry if you think this is dragging... I just feel like any relationship/friendship needs some time if it initially looks like this. Besides that Yeol is just such a busy person, snooping around others' stories so much!
Still, rest assured, there's more fluff to come!

It was hella fun to search for some weird emoticons. Actually, if you insert the Japanese keyboard onto your mobile phone, you can automatically choose between a lot of those, did you know that?
Haha, my roommate loves to send me those~ (*≧▽≦)

As always, I appreciate everyone reading, commenting, subscribing or even upvoting
- I feel honoured, thank you ♥
Love,
Sugar-and-Salt