November 27th was tomorrow and Chanyeol was ridiculously nervous for his birthday. But not because he was getting older, or he was worried about gifts. He was nervous to see Baekhyun, the thought of seeing the smaller male released the painful butterflies trapped in his stomach. Sehun had even feigned offense when Chanyeol said he didn’t care what kind of party was thrown as long as you know who was invited.

“I already told you he’s coming. But I told him it was a surprise party, I can’t wait to see where he hides.”

“You didn’t.”

“I didn’t; I was joking. But I like to imagine him jumping out to surprise everyone…” Sehun rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“You’re a ,” laughed Chanyeol.

“Well, that’s what you like right? I do the best I can.”

Chanyeol swatted at him but Sehun ducked and lunged into his room, cackling.

But the next day Sehun was smirking as he left the house. The party was in two hours and they would all meet there at 8, but apparently Sehun had last minute things to put together, he’d said.

Chanyeol sat watching T.V. when the buzzer rang at around 7. He opened the door and was surprised to see Baekhyun. He wore a thick, fur lined winter coat and his curly black hair was in utter disarray. His cheeks were flushed and he had obviously been running as he panted, “Sorry I’m late! Happy Birthday!”

Chanyeol let him in, his mouth hanging open all the while as Baekhyun observed the empty apartment and asked, “Where is everyone?”

“You’re early…like really early.”

“Really? Sehun told me to get here at 6:30….so I ran for nothing?”

Chanyeol cursed under his breath, “It seems like it.”

“Well, shoot.”

“Shoot, indeed. I was just watching TV, come sit,” he waved him inside.

“Sure,” he said as he walked and sat down on the couch. Chanyeol flipped the TV back on and turned it to the soccer match he’d been watching.

He sat on the opposite end of the couch, as far from the small man as he could manage, which was not very far considering the shortness of the sofa. He noticed Baekhyun sat stiffly and upright, his hands folded on his lap.

A silence fell between them and in the empty room the tension was suddenly palpable. Chanyeol became hyper-aware of the short distance between the two and the emptiness of the apartment. If he were to slide over now he could easily make some sort of mood. But he was constantly reminding himself that his feelings were one-sided and even if he did, things probably wouldn’t go as planned.

His hands seemed to be acting on his own, his fingers stretching in and out and he nervously gripped his pants. Chanyeol quickly stood, surprising Baekhyun, and declared he’d get them some cider from the fridge. While he was in the kitchen and Baekhyun’s eyes weren’t on him he patted his face and gave himself a nervous pep-talk, telling himself the tension was all in his head. It was all on his side.

He bravely walked back into the room and placed the cider in front of Baekhyun, but instantly began panicking when he saw that the couch had dipped in the middle and he had slid toward the center. Mentally cursing the over-used cushions, he sat back down and almost yelped when their shoulders brushed.

He literally thought it couldn’t get any worse, but found it could when he decided to speak, “This is boring right? What should we watch?”

“I’m not sure,” Baekhyun said, staring straight ahead at the screen. “I think Running Man is on.”

“Oh that’s good,” but when he flipped the channel the program was in the middle of a drama, and all the two of them saw was the main actor pinning the female lead against a bed and kissing her fiercely, slowly removing the buttons of her blouse with nimble fingers. Loud moans and scandalous breathing sounds filled the once silent room in an obscene orchestra.

Chanyeol blushed frantically and smashed his thumb down on the channel button, begging internally for that not to have just happened. He really hoped Baekhyun wouldn’t notice what kind of thoughts had just crossed his mind since the look on his face was so obvious. Sehun always said he was an open book

He turned to joke about the show when he noticed Baekhyun staring at him. Really staring at him. With their shoulders pressed together and their heads both turned inwards, their faces were inches apart. Baekhyun’s eyes were lowered and he stared at Chanyeol’s lips. Chanyeol in a low sharp breath, almost a gasp.

Thoughts were racing through his head but all that made sense in his garbled mind was the proximity, the whiteness of Baekhyun’s skin, his plump red lips and how Baekhyun seemed to want this too. Without even meaning to, his body began leaning forward. He knew exactly what would happen if he just reached out.

Chanyeol’s hand was in mid-air, his head tilted to the side and Baekhyun made no move away from him, but sat still; his hands were curled in tight fists on his lap but his eyes never left Chanyeol’s lips. Chanyeol closed his eyes.

And suddenly the lock on the front door clicked, the sound rang loud and sharp through the silent room. Wordlessly and quickly they both slid back to their original positions on the sides of the couch and turned their heads back to the screen.

Sehun entered, grocery bag in hand and looked silently between the two of them. Kyungsoo, Kris, Jongdae and Minseok followed him in moments later making a huge ruckus and their celebration began.

Later in the night when they were alone in the kitchen together Sehun, with a disappointed look on his face, whispered to Chanyeol, “I should have waited a few more minutes, huh?”

The party passed without a hitch, they drank, they sang happy birthday on the karaoke machine and enjoyed each other’s company. When the night ended, Chanyeol was disappointed about his lack of interaction with the small man during the remainder of the party. Everyone said their goodbyes and congratulated him. Baekhyun was the last to go, but not before he quietly passed his gift onto Chanyeol at the edge of the door.

He was bouncing in place in his too-big coat at the door, anxious to be off, but he shyly called Chanyeol to the door. Chanyeol looked shyly back and Sehun rolled his eyes at the two, giving him an encouraging nudge and then retreating to his room.

Baekhyun pulled out a small bag from his enormous coat pocket and deftly shoved it into Chanyeol’s open hands. He tried not to focus on Baekhyun’s lingering fingers. He removed the light wrapping to find an even smaller box. As he wondered what could possibly be in it he pulled out a long and thin beaded chain, a necklace. It was plain, but attached to it was an elaborately carved wooden guitar pick. The designs on the front were a beauty Chanyeol had never seen before. The small swirling patterns were something intricate like Polynesian tattoos.

He stared at it for a long while, “Flip it over,” said Baekhyun, shyly, fiddling with his thumbs.

The back read his name, spelled out in English lettering.

“Is it too cheesy?” Baekhyun had a slight grimace on his face and he was suddenly very much interested in the zipper on his jacket.

But Chanyeol replied in an instant. “It is….but it’s also perfect” his grin stretched up to his ears and Baekhyun smiled back, his face beaming just like the full moon that night.

Chanyeol thought then that nothing could be more beautiful or more perfect.

Finals were fast approaching and Chanyeol hardly had chances to see Baekhyun after his birthday as they were both preparing for their unshared classes. He found the separation was making him anxious and he hoped that after finals he’d see more of the small black haired boy. Since the party, he had been given a greater hope about Baekhyun’s inclinations towards him. Yet in their brief interactions since then, they’d continued the song and dance of before, and Chanyeol couldn’t help but complain to his best friend.

“You should just tell him you want to him,” said Sehun one afternoon, an annoyed expression on his face. Chanyeol was getting used to Sehun’s random declarations, but still found himself suddenly dropping the apple he’d been carving. Well, at least he didn’t choke.

“It’s not ing about that,” he rubbed the now-bruised and dusty apple on his shirt. “He just finally told me about his biggest secret for god’s sake, I can’t just spring it on him that I’m in love with him.”

“Why not? He told you his biggest secret and you tell him he turned you gay. Sounds like an equal trade to me. Plus, you said he made a move on you on your birthday.”

“That was not what I said. If you recall I said I almost made a move because he looked at me funny.” He sighed, “But , the mood was right…ugh. I can’t just jump on that…even if I do want to.”

“Do you need a glass of water?” Sehun asked suddenly.

“Why?”

“Because you’re so thirsty.”

Chanyeol hissed through his teeth, “I’m trying to be serious. Why am I even friends with you?”

“You know you love this,” he said grinning, pointing up and down his body. “Just don’t start to like it too much, okay? I can’t return your feelings no matter how much you want me.”

“You just .”

“Just out of curiosity, when did you decide you were in love with him? I swear just a week ago you would barely admit you liked him. And before that you were just obsessed with him. What is he doing to you?”

Chanyeol rubbed his face in his hands, both embarrassed and just as confused as Sehun. “I don’t know…it just happened?” he smiled sheepishly. “It might have been that first night he went clubbing with us. No, even before then. All I knew was I was not going to be happy if he wasn’t there t