After the long weekend they spent alone together, Baekhyun began opening up more around Chanyeol. Before, the understood tension and withholding had been somewhat of a burden on their relationship. With all of their feelings out in the open, he smiled more often now, and he seemed entirely comfortable being with Chanyeol in public. Sometimes he was even the first to hold onto the taller man, or lean his head against his shoulder, and each time he did Chanyeol’s heart became lighter and lighter.

At this point, Sehun was the only one to surely know about their relationship, and through Baekhyun’s eyes he was the only one. However Chanyeol was sure that Kyungsoo knew as well. With the way Chanyeol had chased after Baekhyun that day, there could be no doubt of their relationship. But the owl-eyed man had kept his civility and distance since that time. They only interacted briefly and in short bursts, however Chanyeol noticed his glares now and then directed at the both of them.

But none of this mattered to him. He didn’t care if people knew about his and Baekhyun’s relationship, that he was gay, or whatever people wanted to call it. He was in love. If Baekhyun had let him he would have announced his happiness in front of the whole world and done so without any regret. Alas, Baekhyun was still under fear of his parents. They loomed over their relationship like a dark shadow from an oncoming storm and sometimes the stress of it all really got on his nerves.

Baekhyun assured Chanyeol that he was still trying very hard, but Chanyeol never pushed him. Because neither of them were able to imagine a time where telling Baekhyun’s parents would be okay. They were as adamant as ever and as much as Baekhyun wanted to tell his parents about his relationship, any adjacent topics he dared to bring up were dismissed with either silence or anger.

But telling at least Chanyeol’s friends seemed to be acceptable for now.

And after all, spring was already in full swing. They’d been in the last semester of their third undergraduate year for a while already and had been secretly, discounting Sehun’s acknowledgement, seeing each other for weeks.

Both of them were so happy being in each other’s’ company that even their skinship was starting to leak into their everyday life. They didn’t really notice until one day in the practice room when the entire band had gathered to throw around ideas. Kris and Minseok would be graduating after this term and tensions were starting to rise amongst the members. They would soon enter the workforce and if their group wasn’t noticed soon then those two might have to give up on their dreams of stardom.

Baekhyun had been softly playing with the keyboard for a while now and humming to himself. The rest of members recognized his skill long ago when he first dared to play in their presence. They’d been nagging him for weeks to join their band but he always politely refused, for reasons only Chanyeol and Sehun understood.

Chanyeol was always proud whenever he heard him play, and sometimes he would go to The Library multiple times in the week just to hear Baekhyun’s performances. He especially enjoyed the little melodies that were of his own creation and admired Baekhyun’s composing creativity. It inspired him to try writing more of his own and he had been working for a while now on a song for Baekhyun to play, but he was never quite satisfied with what he wrote when he tried to play it himself.

But he was feeling especially proud of Baekhyun that day when he saw the pianist smile lightly at him from the instrument. Chanyeol walked up behind him and rested his chin on his head, slowly wrapping his arms around his waist. They thought nothing of it for they were in a world of their own.

Neither of them realized anything was off until Sehun coughed discreetly and looked pointedly at them, flickering his eyes about the room. Chanyeol unwound his hands but it was too late, because Jongdae was laughing and joking, “You two are awfully touchy lately. What are you dating or something?”

Sehun’s eyes widened for a moment but he coughed again in an attempt to cover his facial slip.

Kyungsoo stiffened visibly in his seat at the table and Jongin who sat across from him glanced at the small man with sad anticipation in his eyes.

However, Chanyeol looked to Baekhyun, who looked shy but nodded. And Chanyeol replied, “Well actually….yes.”

There was a stiff silence about the room until Kris spoke from the wall, where he’d been leaning, checking his phone. “If you say it like that I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

Then the room erupted in movement at once. Minseok’s jaw had dropped and he sat stunned. Kris’ jaw did the same but instead he stuttered incoherent sentences looking dumbstruck.

Jongdae jumped from his seat and pointed between the two of them screaming, “I knew it! I ing new it!”

Sehun folded his arms and rolled his eyes. But Kyungsoo’s reaction was by far the worst.

He lightly took Jongin’s arm in his hand and silently walked from the room sending a hard glare at Chanyeol. Jongin followed suit but quickly turned his attention to the figure he was following and ducked out of the room. He couldn’t help but feel a small guilty tug in the corner of his heart.

Luckily Baekhyun didn’t notice because he was covering his face with his hands, but the bright red underneath still shone insistently through. Chanyeol tapped his foot impatiently and folded his arms, mirroring Sehun, waiting for them all to calm down. He couldn’t think of how badly he was hurting Kyungsoo right now, not with the rest of the room in chaos. He briefly flitted over the idea of Jongin caring for him and the thought seemed to ease his mind. The boy was definitely in love with his friend and he wondered how the rest of the room hadn’t seemed to notice that. And speaking of love going noticed…

Jongdae saw Sehun’s bored expression and pointed at him accusingly, “You knew?”

Sehun grinned and disinterestedly checked his nails, “Of course I knew. If your best friend is ing his boyfriend in the room over then how are you not going to know?” Baekhyun practically screamed at him.

“Sehun!” Chanyeol shouted and his friend shrugged.

Jongdae faltered a little and sat back down, “B-boyfriend…….”

 “Since when…” Minseok spoke quietly from the table, “How long has this been going on?”

Baekhyun was still red but he uncovered his face and muttered, “Since the end of winter break.”

Chanyeol was surprised he answered but he also smiled because of it.

“I knew something was suspicious,” Jongdae declared again to the room. “Chanyeol got dumped right before break but wouldn’t tell us who did it and then Baekhyun stopped hanging out with us. Then he showed up again and Chanyeol was all happy. I just never thought you would be…”

Sehun gave a slow sarcastic clap, “We’re all amazed at your deductive powers, Jongdae. I’m just as amazed as when my 2 year old niece figured out 1 plus 1 equals 2.”

“So you’re….gay?” Kris asked from the corner.

Chanyeol shrugged, “I guess so.”

“Maybe this is rude…I saw Baekhyun being gay but Chanyeol…”

Baekhyun scoffed a little and spoke up, “Just because Chanyeol isn’t feminine doesn’t mean he can’t like guys.”

“Yeah! Anyways, I think he’s technically biual,” chipped in Sehun, and then he suddenly grinned evilly. “Maybe he’s in love with Baekhyun, but he definitely still has a bunch of dirty magazines in his room and none of them are men.”

Chanyeol lunged to swat his arm, “Get over here, brat!” but Sehun ducked behind Kris and cackled mischievously.

“They’re under his bed!” He yelled at Baekhyun from behind Kris’ arm.

Chanyeol turned to look at his lover then, whose expression was now shocked and his mouth hung slightly open, “You still like-“

“You can’t possibly be questioning me right now. Not with how many times we’ve done it.”

“ARGH!” yelled Jongdae, and Minseok blushed and hid his face. “I didn’t hear that! I didn’t hear anything,” he covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, looking scandalized.

“Dude…” said Sehun, looking mock disgusted. “What did I tell you?”

“You’re the one who said it first!”

“But you just confirmed it!” yelled Jongdae.

Baekhyun had squeaked immediately and ran for it, hiding in the back storage room.

Chanyeol was flustered, but he managed to spit out, “What’s the big deal? It’s just . Everyone here has done it before.”

“But not with another dude!” cried Jongdae. He put his face in his hands, looking completely befuddled, “I don’t even understand how….”

Sehun crowed, “You don’t even know play, Jongdae?”

Jongdae screamed again and Chanyeol looked utterly mortified. This was not how he imagined coming out to his friends. There were way too many details. But perhaps he was grateful that Sehun was such a major , he helped diffuse the seriousness of the situation in an instant.

“Wow…I have learned way too many things I didn’t need to know today. I’m out,” said Kris with a two- salute. But he still looked at Chanyeol kindly, “I’ll see you later,” he strode out the door, followed quickly by Jongdae and Minseok, who both just stared at him blankly and waved.

Sehun was the last to go and he patted Chanyeol’s shoulder in sympathy, “Well that could have been worse.”

“How could it possibly have been worse?”

“Well, they don’t seem like they’re going to light some torches and start a mob.”

“Yeah, I guess so. It’s not like you helped any though, you .”

He laughed. “I guess not…. But they were going to have questions sooner or later. Oh, and Chanyeol? One more thing” he leaned in closely and whispered to him, his countenance becoming serious in a flash, “Don’t think I didn’t notice Kyungsoo’s reaction. Whatever is still happening there…you need to end it soon.”

Chanyeol was a bit shocked, “Nothing’s happening!” he whispered back frantically.

“Well that’s my point exactly. So hurry up and tell him you don’t like him so he can move on already.”

“I pretty much did though…and I don’t want to lose him as a friend…” he said lamely. Why was this so difficult?

“Well with Kyungsoo ‘pretty much’ isn’t going to cut it then. You’re the happiest you’ve been in years, I don’t want you to lose Baekhyun over something stupid that happened forever ago.”

“Why would I lose him?”

Sehun snorted, “You of all people ought to realize how delicate he is. Maybe it’s just me but if he finds out that you two slept together and that Kyungsoo is in love with you he’ll probably feel like he’s been betrayed.”

The thought of Baekhyun leaving him was too much to bare, “That’s never going to happen. I won’t let it happen because I’ll tell him myself. I’ll tell him and Kyungsoo everything so don’t worry…It just might take me a little while to pick up the courage.”

“Don’t wait too long okay? I don’t want you to have any regrets.”

“See you at home?” he finished, and Chanyeol nodded.

Sehun smirked, “You better go get your blushing bride,” he said, causing Chanyeol to blush again and mutter indignantly.

When Sehun was gone he turned to the closed storage room. He flicked on the lights and saw Baekhyun, squatting holding his knees in the corner, surrounded by high stacks of boxes and papers and music equipment. He looked up as Chanyeol came in, his face still pink.

“You!” he complained. “You’re so embarrassing!”

Chanyeol shrugged and sat next to him, grinning. “Sehun was right. That could have been a lot worse.”

“How?”

“Well they could have been actually disgusted for one thing. I know they all said stuff but none of them really meant it, I can tell. They’re just not used to the idea yet, they’ll all come around. Sehun did, and he’s one of the most closed minded bastards I know.”

“Kyungsoo left though…he seemed really angry.”

His heart leapt a little at his words, “Don’t mind him, he’ll get over it. He’s probably just shocked is all.” Liar.

“Really? ...um…Is it okay if I say this? I think Kyungsoo might be…like us.”

Chanyeol was a bit terrified then of Baekhyun’s intuition. And for a moment he considered telling Baekhyun then and there about their history. But however brief that history was, he was afraid of the weight it would place on Baekhyun. He bit back his tongue and only managed a weak, “Maybe.” Another lie. “But why do you think that?”

“It seemed to me like he was…jealous. Maybe it’s just me being jealous, but sometimes he looks at you funny, Chanyeol.”

“It’s just your imagination,” he lied again. What is wrong with me?  “Even if he is gay do you think he’d come after me, his friend, and ignore Jongin, the hottie, who’s always right next to him?” That’s pretty much what’s happening though.

“I guess so…” he chuckled a bit. “Poor Jongin definitely likes Kyungsoo, but it doesn’t seem mutual at all.”

“I’m more surprised that Jongdae hasn’t noticed him yet. We barely touched like once and Jongin is hanging off of Kyungsoo all the time. His Gaydar must be whack.”

Baekhyun laughed then began pouting cutely, “You still look at dirty magazines? What about me?”

Chanyeol grinned but felt a little pang in his heart when Baekhyun looked at him like that, “Are you jealous?”

Baekhyun frowned, “Maybe a little…Like really just a little. Don’t laugh.”

He chuckled a bit and smiled kindly, “There’s nothing for you to be jealous of. I just have them from before, you know? Maybe I do still think girls are hot sometimes but they mean nothing to me compared to you. Basically everyone pales in comparison. You’re the most beautiful of all to me.”

He smiled a little, “Thanks…but I don’t know if I like being called beautiful. It’s so feminine.” He actually whined and Chanyeol briefly thought he might die.

“But I think you’re a bit more in touch with your feminine side, so why not? I mean look at your hands,” he grabbed Baekhyun’s in his own