A New Crush
Seducing Byun Baekhyun
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Baekhyun was half confused when he woke up the next day. That didn't feel right because he was pretty sure he wasn't drunk the night before. After all, all they did was eat. He ate a lot, but absolutely no alcohol was involved.
He didn't even know why there were a lot of boxes at the foot of his bed at the moment, but at least when he turned to his bedside table, he figured out an answer to his initial confusion earlier.
The digital alarm clock there read 9:42AM. He wasn't used to that. He was used to waking up at 6:30 to start getting ready for classes at 8:00. The latest he could wake up to was 7:00, but if he got up any later than that, he would either panic for class if there's class or he would start feeling like he was wasting the day even on free days. And the latter was how he was feeling at the moment already.
Forcing himself to get up, he stretched his back while groaning lazily and stretching his arms out. He started to make his way to the bathroom when he finally noticed a single note laid down on top of the boxes at the foot of his bed, weighed down by an empty pencil holder.
Hey Baekhyun,
I noticed your alarm clock ring earlier but you wouldn't get up so I thought you'd want to sleep in a bit more and didn't bother waking you up. Your things arrived early though so I took the liberty to sign for them and bring them in here.
Oh, and if you don't know already, Jongin and Kyungsoo are out because Jongin took Kyungsoo out for a breakfast date or something but they said they'd meet us at lunch at Luhan Hyung's place. If you're hungry though, I left food at the ref for you.
See you later, Roommate! :)— Chanyeol
PS. If you want me to fetch you later, just text me. 010-XXXX-XXXX
Leaving the note where he found it, Baekhyun headed for the toilet first but as soon as he was done there, he headed for the kitchen and went straight to the ref. Just as Chanyeol said, Baekhyun found a small bag in there and when he took it out, he was pleased to know that it was Salmon Bagel in there. Just as he took it out and started eating it, his eyes landed on the coffee maker he was pretty sure wasn't there last night with a fresh pot ready so he didn't hesitate to take a cup and pour himself some.
He enjoyed the breakfast his roommate left for him with a smile, happily singing, "Best roommate ever!"
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After eating, taking a bath and getting ready for the day, Baekhyun realized that he still had a lot of time until lunch time came so he decided to start with the boxes his roommate so kindly brought inside their bedroom for him.
If during the first day he had an easy time fixing his things because there were not a lot of them, this time was very different. A couple of bags were nothing compared to three big boxes. He somehow had to manage though so he started placing things around the room. The first thing he did was set the humidifiers on good spots, one at the bedroom and another at the living room. He was also thankful to find his hairdryer was there so he placed it on the bathroom for both his use and Chanyeol's, if the taller even used one. The other things he thought would be useful were placed where they should be while the others were neatly arranged into his cabinets.
By the time he was finishing with the second box, he got a text message from Kyungsoo informing him of what he already knew which was meeting up at lunch time. Thanks to that though, he noticed that it was only a few minutes before lunch so he quickly grabbed the note his roommate left earlier and then sent a quick message asking to be fetched if it wasn't any bother.
He got no reply so he started getting ready anyway, but after just a few minutes, he heard their door opened and when he peeked from the doorway of their bedroom, he saw his roommate came in a hurry, sweaty and looking pretty embarrassed.
"Mind if I take a quick shower before we head out? I smell like a skunk," He asked and as an answer, Baekhyun just laughed and nodded before going back to the box he was trying to empty.
☺☺☻☺☻☺☻
"Where were you this morning?" Baekhyun finally got to ask the question he'd been wanting to ask since Chanyeol came back to their dorm room, all sweaty, to pick him up for their lunch with the couple.
"At the gym," Chanyeol answered with a huge smile. "I happened to see Kris Hyung and the others at the place where I bought bagels so they invited me to play a little, and since I had nothing better to do, I thought why not. We wanted to invite you too, but you were still asleep when I got back so I didn't disturb you."
"Oh, that's alright. It's not like I would've actually played. I hate having to run around chasing a ball that everybody is trying to snatch just to throw it away again once it's in my hands. Not really my kind of game," Baekhyun nonchalantly shrugged as he spoke, but he noticed how Chanyeol looked at him, stunned for a moment before he started laughing heartily.
"What?" Baekhyun asked, just a little confused. "Why are you laughing?"
"Well, guys don't usually think of that when playing basketball, so I can't believe you just said that," Chanyeol said, still laughing.
"Did you just insult me?" Baekhyun frowned.
"No!" Chanyeol quickly stopped laughing— well, he tried his best to so he just looked like an idiot trying to swallow his laughter— and enthusiastically shook his head. "No, I wasn't. I just thought that was adorable."
Baekhyun frowned even more. "Adorable? Park Chanyeol, how many times are you going to insult me in one day?"
Chanyeol's laughter seriously halted by then as his eyes widened while looking back at Baekhyun, mouth opening and closing several times as if in a seriously desperate attempt to deny Baekhyun's accusation. Seeing the look on his face though, Baekhyun wasn't able to hold his act up for much longer and ended up howling in laughter while looking at his roommate's face.
"Relax, Chanyeol. I was just joking. You don't have to look like I'm going to murder you in your sleep or something, you know," Baekhyun held his stomach as he spoke after laughing too much.
"You're a sly one, Byun Baekhyun," Chanyeol mock glared, making Baekhyun laugh even more and Chanyeol couldn't help but let go of the laugh he'd been holding out too so they ended up just laughing together.
They only stopped laughing like crazy once they realized that they were almost at Luhan's grill place. It was already the time for lunch rush, as could obviously be told by the amount of people inside the place and even outside where there was a line of people waiting to be catered. Baekhyun looked pretty horrified by the thought of having to wait so long before they could get a table. He had an idea of how popular the place was around there the previous time they were there because although they had a pretty late dinner back then, there still was a lot of people. But he didn't think it would be so popular that people actually had to wait in a long line to get seats.
Chanyeol must've seen the horrified look on his roommate's face because when Baekhyun turned to him, he was smirking.
"Have faith in me roommate. I have more sense than you might think," Chanyeol said with a wink, effectively puzzling Baekhyun who just tilted his head back at him.
Smirking, Chanyeol walked with a slightly faster pace while Baekhyun just followed after him with his eyes, keeping his current pace. Chanyeol went straight for a door earning some disapproving look from the people who were at the start of the queue but he obviously paid no mind to that. He waved to somebody as he reached the door and it opened almost automatically. Chanyeol quickly waved Baekhyun over after, and receiving a mix of annoyed and disapproving looks from the people at the queue himself, Baekhyun decided to hurriedly jog closer and entered the restaurant right after Chanyeol.
Once inside, that's when he noticed that Luhan was standing right there with them and just then did Baekhyun remember that Chanyeol and Jongin happened to be friends with the son of the owner of the place so they had some lucky advantage.
"Good thing you called this morning to reserve a table or else you'd have to wait for a really long time or you'll have to eat somewhere else," Luhan said as he lead the way.
"Are Jongin and Kyungsoo here yet?" Chanyeol asked as they walked thru the noise and enthusiastic vibe of the people inside the restaurant.
"Nope, you two came first," Luhan only got to answer when they reached the table he reserved for them which was one of the closed off ones they had, close to the back and with a wall separating them from the rest of the restaurant. It wasn't completely closed with a door, but they had to make a turn to reach it so it was pretty much hidden from the rest which meant privacy for them.
Naturally, the two sat on one side of the table the same way they did the previous time. It wasn't difficult to tell that Jongin and Kyungsoo would want to sit together anyway, and neither of them wanted to get in the way of that and risk seeing more of the couple's honeymoon phase sweetness if they separated them even just a little.
"Are you going to order already or are you going to wait for the other two?" Luhan asked, suddenly with a couple of menus on his hands that the two couldn't figure out where he got from.
When Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun, the latter shrugged. "I am hungry already."
"Then we'll order first, but give us a few minutes to decide first hyung," Chanyeol said and Luhan quietly nodded before gracefully disappearing from their sights.
"Is it really okay to eat before they come?" Baekhyun asked, in slight doubt of eating ahead of his best friend. It wasn't really normal for him and Kyungsoo to not be deciding about this together.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. They won't mind. Besides, they're on a date so we don't know how late they might get," Chanyeol said and Baekhyun couldn't help but agree to that.
"You make a good point roommate," Baekhyun said, all doubts gone as his eyes quickly scanned the menus instantly.
Chanyeol chuckled at his roommate's reaction and lightly tousled the shorter's hair, making the other flinch.
"Hey!" Baekhyun playfully hissed at his roommate's action, but didn't avert his eyes from the menu, still busy figuring out what to order. "Don't do that. I'm older than you, remember?"
"I still don't want to consider that seeing as I look older than you," Chanyeol said in a low voice, obviously trying to be sly about it but not so much.
And that was when Baekhyun spared his roommate a quickly glare but the action only made the other chuckle.
"I was joking," Chanyeol laughed lightly. "Alright. Order whatever you want and that's what we'll have. By the way you're looking at the menu, I can tell that there are a lot of things you want to try, so just go right ahead."
"Seriously?" Baekhyun quickly brightened up, only throwing his roommate a short grateful look before his eyes focused back on the menu like a hawk. "Alright, you can't take that back roommate!"
When Luhan went back a few minutes later, Baekhyun ended up ordering Kimchi Pajeon, Mandu, Sundubu Jjigae, Galbitang, Sogalbi, Makchang and Seang Samgyeopsal. If Chanyeol was still shocked by his shorter roommate's appetite, he didn't show it. He simply added an order of a pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade for their drinks and Luhan went off again to get their orders ready.
"What are we supposed to do after this?" Chanyeol asked Baekhyun as they were left alone.
"What do you mean?" Baekhyun asked, slightly puzzled by the question.
"I mean, after lunch, do you want to go somewhere or do something? We only have a few days left before school officially starts, you know," Chanyeol stated and that's when Baekhyun started thinking about it.
"Now that you mention it, I feel like we're nearing our end," Baekhyun chuckled at the thought.
By then, another waiter appeared and served them their utensils, side dishes and started setting up the granite grill. The roommates quietly watched him work and kept quiet with timid smiles on their faces until he was gone.
"How about we invite the couple to go grocery shopping? Our ref's still empty and I'm not so comfortable about that fact," Chanyeol said as soon as they were left along again.
"Oh, that's a good idea. I'm sure Kyungsoo is dying to cook already. He'll love that," Baekhyun cheerfully agreed, but then a wince appeared on his face right after. "Dammit, I just remembered I'm still not done unpacking my boxes. I still have one box and a half to empty."
"Don't worry about that. I can just help you out with that once we get back," Chanyeol nonchalantly said as he picked up his chopsticks and started munching on the kimchi.
"Really? You don't mind?" Baekhyun asked, eyes brightening up so much as he looked at his roommate who just kept on eating the side dishes.
"Yeah. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to do," Chanyeol answered, just as nonchalantly as he did before. "Dammit, their kimchi here is really nice. We need a refill though."
Baekhyun chuckled as his eyes found the empty bowl of kimchi and just requested for a refill of that when the waiter came over again to start serving them their soup.
They were in the middle of eating, with the grill having been filled and emptied once already when the couple they were waiting for finally came.
"Wow, you couldn't wait?" Jongin asked with a frown as he watched the two eat continuously even while looking at him and Kyungsoo.
"We were hungry and we didn't know what time you would be coming," Chanyeol answered for the both of them seeing as Baekhyun's mouth was currently full and he didn't seem willing to hurriedly swallow his food. He wasn't about to stop savouring the flavour of the food in his mouth just to answer Jongin's complaint so he simply nodded to what his roommate said.
"Besides, it's not like you can't order for yourselves. And I'm not sharing our food with you, even you Kyung, sorry," Baekhyun said after he finally swallowed, grinning towards his best friend who simply shrugged back at him with the same grin on his face.
"That's fine, Baek. Just eat up," Kyungsoo kindly answered with a smile, sincerely happy to see his best friend eating so well and not complaining about how he left him alone for breakfast just because his boyfriend suddenly pulled him away for some early morning date.
"Anyway, there will be a couple of people joining us for lunch. We happened to meet my cousin on our way here so I invited her and her friend to join us. I hope you don't mind," Jongin said with a huge smile, talking mostly only to Chanyeol though, who simply shrugged.
"I don't mind," Chanyeol answered, and just for the heck of it, Baekhyun added, "A relative of yours? Huh. Should I be worried or horrified?"
Jongin threw Baekhyun a glare, satisfying Baekhyun well.
A waiter came over to hand them a couple of menus, and Jongin asked for a couple more for the other two who would be joining them. It was while Jongin and Kyungsoo were deciding on what to order when a couple of girls appeared with Luhan who brought a couple of chairs with him and asked everyone to scoot over so that he could add the chairs for the girls.
"Thanks, Lu," one of the girls said with a sweet eye smile towards the boy who simply bowed in front of her playfully and walked away with a chuckle when the girl lightly hit him on the arm.
"Hey, another new person," the other girl with a friendly smile said as he turned towards Baekhyun who the other guys just then noticed froze on his spot, his earlier continuous chewing and swallowing halted as his eyes focused directly on the girl who just noticed his presence.
"Oh, he's just Kyungsoo's friend," Jongin introduced him that lightly, even swatting his hand off as if saying it wasn't any important.
"Jongin!" Kyungsoo obviously didn't like the way his boyfriend introduce his best friend so he hit him quite heavily on the arm before looking back at the girl and repeated the introduction. "He's Byun Baekhyun. He's my best friend."
"I see," the girl said, looking back at the boy who was still staring at her. She simply smiled at him though, luckily not finding him odd at all so she offered a hand and said, "I'm Jongin's cousin and a hopefully reliable sunbae to you guys, Kim Taeyeon. Nice to meet you, Baekhyun-ssi."
For a moment, there was no response from Baekhyun at all. At least until he felt a more than light kick on his shin which brought him back to his senses so he could throw a quick glare at his best friend who just kicked him under the table, and then focus back on the girl who just introduced herself to him.
He took her hand, small and soft hand, and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Noona. You can drop the honorifics, by the way."
"That's great. Thanks, Baekhyun!" Taeyeon answered with a wider smile and then turned to introduce her friend too. "And this one here is Hwang Tiffany. She's also a sunbae of yours."
"Hi, Noona," Baekhyun also greeted the other girl who threw her an eye smile over the menu she was busily looking into.
"So you're Chanyeollie's roommate, huh?" It was Tiffany that broke the silence that took over when everyone got busy choosing what they wanted to eat, and the silence just naturally carried on even after the waiter left with the list of their orders.
Baekhyun simply answered with a nod, mouth busily chewing to answer verbally.
"Must be fun, being roommate with your friend. Taeyeon and I didn't know each other until we became roommates so it was unbelievably awkward at first. We didn't become close until out first term was almost over," Tiffany shared with a smile as she and Taeyeon laughed lightly at the memories.
Baekhyun shook his head lightly as he tried to swallow his food quickly. "Actually, I met Chanyeol for the first time when we moved in yesterday. Kyungsoo kind of threw me away in favour of rooming with Jongin."
"Baek!" Kyungsoo protested in shock of Baekhyun lightly bringing that up, making Baekhyun laugh of course.
"But it's alright. I think Chanyeol and I are getting along well, anyway," Baekhyun added with a smile towards his roommate who quietly smiled back at him.
"Well, at least that's a good thing," Taeyeon said and Baekhyun nodded enthusiastically.
The orders of the four arrived quicker than they thought, filling up their already filled up table. Good thing was that some of Baekhyun and Chanyeol's plates from earlier were already emptied by then so the waiter took them away to make room for the new orders. Jongin and Kyungsoo ordered almost as much as Baekhyun and Chanyeol did, but the girls decided to just order one dish each along with a platter of fruits for dessert.
"Anyway, what are your majors, Noona?" Baekhyun asked, the question directed to both of the girls but his eyes were too obviously focused on just one of them.
"Well, we're both music majors, but we're also taking Fine Arts as minor," Taeyeon answered, to which Tiffany nodded.
"I'm only taking up Basic Sketching, just to improve my drawing skills because unlike Taeyeon here, I only want to improve my drawing skills so I can draw my designs— fashion designs. Taeyeon, though, is an amazing painter. You should check out the gallery at the Fine Arts building. She has some paintings displayed in there and I'm telling you, they only display the best ones," Tiffany bragged about her best friend, causing the other to blush hard, especially with the way Baekhyun's eyes brightened up with admiration.
"Really? I want to see!" Baekhyun shamelessly exclaimed. "Oh, and Kyungsoo and I are actually Music majors too, and we both took Fine Arts as minors too."
"Seriously?" Taeyeon exclaimed, completely happy about having the same interests with the new guys. "Well, you guys know who to consult then, if you need anything."
"Of course! Hopefully, you won't regret saying that in the future though," Baekhyun enthusiastically nodded and laughed when the girls giggled at his words.
"Oh, and make sure to look for us when the club recruitment begins. There will be a lot of clubs out there, but we're on the best ones—" Taeyeon started to ramble on, but Tiffany was able to cut in saying, "Not that we're bragging about it, but we are and we're also among the officers now too."
"Yeah," Taeyeon continued, "And it would be great if you guys join the same clubs too. I swear, it will be fun."
"It will be!" Baekhyun nodded, enthusiasm over flowing at the Noona's invite. "Can I contact you by then, Noona?"
"Oh, of course," Taeyeon said, taking out her cellphone and without much doubt, handed it over to Baekhyun who also took out his cellphone and gave it to her.
The two of them exchanged numbers just like that, even taking selcas to save with their contact information, and the others simply watched the happenings unfold. Taeyeon looked at Baekhyun adoringly, happy to have a new dongsaeng who acts so cute unlike her own cousin who liked to believe that he was cool. On the other hand, Baekhyun clearly had a crush and everyone but Taeyeon could tell. Just the way he was being extra cute was a clear tell, but the others had to give him credit for being subtly flirty in his own way too.
"Speaking of clubs," Tiffany suddenly said, her eyes focused on the screen of her cellphone. "I think we have to go."
"Already?" Teayeon asked, scooting over to also look at the screen of Tiffany's cellphone, the other non hesitant to turn her cellphone towards her best friend. Taeyeon winced as soon as she confirmed that it was time. "I didn't think we'd have a meeting this early."
"Really? The term hasn't even started." It was Jongin that spoke, wondering why the Noonas were being called over for club already.
"Well, we're newly appointed officers so they probably want to orient us and then proceed to plan about recruitment and events," Tiffany explained.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to apply as officers," Taeyeon frowned at her best friend, but the other flatly ignored her as she finished the last of their fruit platter. The guys didn't even notice that the girls were already done with their food until they watched Tiffany take the last slice of pear.
"Let's go!" Tiffany jumped up, grabbing the frowning Taeyeon's wrist to drag her along.
"Don't worry about the bill, I'll take care of it Noona," Jongin shouted to the leaving girls, receiving back thanks and thumbs up from the two.
Just before disappearing at the turn, Tiffany looked back and said, "Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, don't forget to contact us before joining any club, alright? You're our recruits from now on. I'll hunt you down if you dare join other clubs!"
Taeyeon left without another word but waved at all of them with a wince-like smile as she let herself be dragged along by Tiffany.
The petite girl's threat sounded scarier than one might assume, especially when said with a completely pretty eye smile. So even when the girls were already gone, Kyungsoo turned to Baekhyun and said, "Baek, don't lose Taeyeon Noona's contact information, okay? We'll need that to join the clubs."
"Of course! There is no way I'm losing it," Baekhyun giggled meaningfully as he scanned thru the photo gallery of his cellphone where the selca Taeyeon took was automatically saved.
"I don't know how it was possible, but Jongin, nice job on having a pretty cousin," Baekhyun commented, utensils down, as he dreamily stared at the screen of his cellphone.
Shocked, Jongin didn't know what to say. It was the first time Baekhyun ever willingly said words of praise to him— kind of. And even if it wasn't a direct praise to him, he'd like to think that his boyfriend's most important friend still kind of praised him— and he wasn't quite sure how to react.
Even Kyungsoo was shocked at Baekhyun's words, but only because of the praise. He wasn't exactly shocked about Baekhyun's sudden infatuation because he knew his best friend well and he knew from the moment he met Jongin's cousin that she was perfectly Baekhyun's type. That was actually one of the reasons he initiated on inviting the girls to join them for lunch. He just didn't expect Baekhyun to be so quick to admit it.
"Okay, I'm gonna ask the obvious, just for the heck of it," Jongin slowly started, successfully tearing Baekhyun's attention off the screen of his cellphone. "Are you crushing on my cousin, Byun Baekhyun?"
Shrugging, Baekhyun jutted his lip out. "That might be a way to word it out." He kept nodding, before smiling genuinely at Jongin— that's a first too. "So, can you tell me more about Taeyeon Noona?"
Just as Jongin was about to open his mouth, they were all distracted by the tongs falling off the table and all their attentions turned to the person who dropped it. Chanyeol didn't look the least bit sorry though.
"Sorry, I just elbowed it when I turned," Chanyeol nonchalantly said with a blank expression on, then he just kept eating although the others kept on looking at him.
Baekhyun was the first one to tear his eyes away from his roommate though and focused back on Jongin. "So?"
"Well..." Jongin looked pretty doubtful to start, but when he turned to his boyfriend and Kyungsoo nodded at him, he sighed and continued, "She's a third year this coming term. As she mentioned earlier, she's a Music major and from what I know, she's one of the lead singers on their club as well as one of the most popular painters in the school. According to Luhan Hyung, she's one of the most popular girls in the school not only because of her looks, but also because of her talents. That's about it."
"That's not much, Kim Jongin," Baekhyun frowned, and seeing that somehow brought comfort to Jongin. He wasn't used to Baekhyun being all nice to him so if he had to admit, it was pretty creepy to have him act like he did a few minutes ago.
"Well, she's my cousin. It's awkward to talk about her this way," Jongin frowned back, and just like that, they were back to normal.
"Oh well. Just don't say anything bad about me to her, you understand?" Baekhyun just sighed as he threw a glare at the boy.
"I'll try my best to stop myself," Jongin said with a grin as he continued eating.
Baekhyun just hissed at him before focusing back on eating what's left of his food. That's when he noticed that Chanyeol had stopped eating by then, so he turned to his roommate.
"Are you done, Chanyeol? There's still quite a lot left," Baekhyun asked, motioning towards the food.
"Nah, I'm full already," Chanyeol simply answered before taking out his cellphone, the action appeared to be dismissive so Baekhyun didn't bother to ask him again, and instead focused on eating as much as he could so as not to waste food.
When they talked about grocery shopping earlier, Baekhyun assumed it would be a fun thing to do with his roommate. He was pretty used to that because he and Kyungsoo usually did that before sleepovers, usually to buy snacks or ingredients for something he'd requested Kyungsoo to cook for him.
Instead of the fun he expected though, the atmosphere his roommate emitted scared him.
He started to notice the change in Chanyeol's mood after they left the restaurant. Unlike how he and Chanyeol joked around and talked while walking together before lunch, Chanyeol walked ahead of the group. Baekhyun tried to catch up to him initially, not wanting to look like a third wheel to Kyungsoo and Jongin, but his shorter legs made it impossible and tiring to try to catch up to Chanyeol's long strides.
He gave up at some point and instead decided to steal Kyungsoo from Jongin, who didn't put up much fight and instead walked ahead with Chanyeol who slowed down a little when Jongin approached him.
When they reached the super market, they had no choice but to split into pairs— by roommates— so they could decide together on what things to buy for their rooms and what food they wanted to stock up on. Kyungsoo seemed reluctant to leave Baekhyun with Chanyeol, but when Jongin started talking about what Kyungsoo could possibly cook for dinner, the shorter boy was quickly distracted away while making a mental list of ingredients he would need.
That was how Baekhyun ended up cruising the aisles with his roommate in an awkward silence.
By chance, Baekhyun saw Kyungsoo and Jongin while they were crossing towards the next aisle and he noticed how half full their cart was already. Compared to that, the cart Chanyeol was pushing as he walked ahead of him only had a pack-of-6 of toilet paper, a couple of rolls of paper towels, a couple of boxes of facial tissue— and that probably was because the first aisle they passed by was full of choices of tissues.
Baekhyun couldn't help but pout as they went on because he honestly had no idea why Chanyeol was acting so grumpy all of a sudden, and he didn't know what to do at all because it was only the second day since they'd known each other and it's the first time it happened for Chanyeol to be in a bad mood. He felt kind of betrayed because the roommate he knew was the cheerful and happy one. It felt like he was meeting Chanyeol for the first time all over again and this was not a Chanyeol he liked.
Despite that though, he risked to step up and saw an opportunity to talk when he found that they were already at the juice section.
"Chanyeol, what kind of juice would you like? I like orange the most, but if you like something else, then we should choose, right?" Baekhyun spoke up while grabbing a liter of fresh orange juice with pulp.
"Just take anything you want. I'll also take what I want," Chanyeol turned to him and answered but the smile Baekhyun was hoping for still didn't appear. He just grabbed his own liter of fresh pomegranate juice and then went on ahead.
Baekhyun didn't feel discouraged though, because at least, he still got Chanyeol to answer him. That should mean well, or at least Baekhyun hoped so and whispered, "Then I'll take a couple of cartons."
He dropped a couple of cartons of orange juice into the cart and then held on the side of it so that he was walking with Chanyeol and not behind him.
"Should we get fruits?" Baekhyun asked.
Chanyeol didn't answer, but he stirred the cart another way when they were about to go to the next aisle and the next thing Baekhyun knew, they were on the fruits section and he was choosing what fruits he wanted to stock up with. Chanyeol was choosing too, so Baekhyun waited for a moment and made sure to differ his choices from Chanyeol's, for variety's sake.
Although still not back to the comfortable, great roommates atmosphere they had from when they met yesterday until before lunch that day, Baekhyun still managed to have his fun while grocery shopping, mostly because of his failed attempts to make his roommate's mood turn into a better one. He wasn't sure if he was right, but he was pretty sure his roommate was suppressing his laughter when Baekhyun slipped at the chips aisle, but he still counted that as a check. They were also able to get a lot of things including some vegetables and a variety of meats. He wasn't sure if Chanyeol was a good cook, but he just wished his roommate would be in a good enough mood the next few days to share food with him.
When they reached the check out counter, Jongin and Kyungsoo were just behind them and if he thought before that they bought a lot, he wasn't thinking that anymore after seeing the couple's cart.
"How much are you planning to cook, Kyung?" Baekhyun asked with a shocked look at their cart full of ingredients. He almost couldn't see the other necessities they bought in the mountain of ingredients.
"This is for an entire week, Baek. And we're all guys. I'm pretty sure we'll eat a lot," Kyungsoo answered, also taking a peek at their cart. "You also bought quite a lot of ingredients."
"Chanyeol did," Baekhyun simply answered and turned to his roommate, hoping to hear an explanation for him and for Kyungsoo as well, but Chanyeol just kept his attention on placing the things they bought in front of the cashier so he didn't push.
Baekhyun just turned back to Kyungsoo with a sulky expression and waited for the bill to total. When it did and it summed up to a price he didn't expect, he felt thankful he had a roommate to share the bill with. What shocked him though was when Chanyeol brought a credit card out and paid for the full bill.
"Chanyeol?!" Baekhyun exclaimed when he got over the shock. "Why did you pay for the whole thing? We should've split the bill."
"Oh." Chanyeol simply looked back at him with furrowed brows. "Next time, then."
"Oh, okay," Baekhyun simply answered, not wanting to complain at this time, slightly afraid to make Chanyeol's mood turn for the worse.
They quietly waited beside the counter for Jongin and Kyungsoo to finish, and once they're done, Jongin weighed each of the bags and chose the lightest ones and gave them to Kyungsoo, who complained about being treated like a princess but took the bags when Jongin embarrassed him by kissing him on the cheek and saying, "Oh, Baby Soo, but you are my princess."
Baekhyun had to admit that it was fun to watch them, but his fun didn't last for long when he found his roommate already walking ahead of them with two bags on his hands and left another two for him. He took a deep breath before taking the two bags in his hands and huffed when he noticed how heavy they were. They probably weren't as heavy as the ones Chanyeol brought because his giant roommate had the bags with the cartons of juices and bottles of other drinks and ingredients while he had the dry ingredients and tissues, with some other things but he still couldn't believe how heavy they all were together.
He was just thankful that the super market was only on the same block as the campus and they didn't have to walk too far. Still, having to walk with heavy bags on both hands made the walk feel farther than it was and before he knew it, he was walking far behind the group with a frown and droplets of sweat appearing on the sides of his face.
Thankfully, he noticed that he was already at the entrance of the campus which meant the dorms should be near enough. He bent down and put the bags down for a moment and then huffed once before carrying them on his hands again.
"You really should exercise more," he suddenly heard a familiar deep voice spoke in front of him and with that, a huge, slightly crooked smile appeared on his face as he looked up at his roommate.
"I don't like sweating," he answered with his friendliest smile on.
"But you still need a little muscle in you," Chanyeol said before taking one of the bags in his hands without looking strained at all.
"Give me one of yours," Baekhyun chased behind Chanyeol but his roommate just threw him a sideways glance.
"I gave you the lighter bags," he simply said, making Baekhyun pout and went back to sulking.
"I really should exercise more," Baekhyung sulked on his own, and that was how he successfully got the smile he'd wanted from his roommate for almost two hours already.
"You're smiling!" Baekhyun exclaimed, quickly springing back from sulking.
"What?" Chanyeol's brows furrowed as he frowned again.
"No! Don't frown again! I've been trying to make you smile for hours, you can't just go back to frowning," Baekhyun childishly stomped and again, successfully made Chanyeol's grin appear.
"Fine, fine," Chanyeol said, exaggerating a smile when Baekhyun turned to him.
"Good! Why was your mood so bad all of a sudden anyway?" Baekhyun asked, sincerely curious, and also hoping to know what ticked the giant off so that he could avoid such scary encounter next time.
Chanyeol looked taken aback for a moment by Baekhyun's straightforward question but he merely shrugged later on. "I must've eaten something bad or I ate too much. I always get in a bad mood when I feel bloated."
It didn't make sense, but Baekhyun easily accepted his roommate's reasoning. "Huh, must be the second one. Because I ate everything and nothing was bad."
Chanyeol couldn't help but laugh at the shorter's answer and simply agreed.
"Hey! What are you two so slow for? We've been holding the elevator for a while now. Are you coming or not?" Jongin's voice suddenly took their attention and they both saw him irritably glaring at them from where he was holding the hold button of the elevator, most likely forced to do that by the peeking Kyungsoo behind him.
"Sheesh, you don't have to be so mean about it," Chanyeol said as he started to jog towards the elevator followed by Baekhyun who initially intended to slow down just to annoy Jongin but thought about how heavy all the bags were so he decided on hurrying too.
Making Chanyeol's mood better was enough accomplishment for one day. He'd reschedule annoying Jongin for another day.
"Well, guys don't usually think of that when playing basketball, so I can't believe you just said that," Chanyeol said, still laughing.
"Did you just insult me?" Baekhyun frowned.
"No!" Chanyeol quickly stopped laughing— well, he tried his best to so he just looked like an idiot trying to swallow his laughter— and enthusiastically shook his head. "No, I wasn't. I just thought that was adorable."
Baekhyun frowned even more. "Adorable? Park Chanyeol, how many times are you going to insult me in one day?"
Chanyeol's laughter seriously halted by then as his eyes widened while looking back at Baekhyun, mouth opening and closing several times as if in a seriously desperate attempt to deny Baekhyun's accusation. Seeing the look on his face though, Baekhyun wasn't able to hold his act up for much longer and ended up howling in laughter while looking at his roommate's face.
"Relax, Chanyeol. I was just joking. You don't have to look like I'm going to murder you in your sleep or something, you know," Baekhyun held his stomach as he spoke after laughing too much.
"You're a sly one, Byun Baekhyun," Chanyeol mock glared, making Baekhyun laugh even more and Chanyeol couldn't help but let go of the laugh he'd been holding out too so they ended up just laughing together.
They only stopped laughing like crazy once they realized that they were almost at Luhan's grill place. It was already the time for lunch rush, as could obviously be told by the amount of people inside the place and even outside where there was a line of people waiting to be catered. Baekhyun looked pretty horrified by the thought of having to wait so long before they could get a table. He had an idea of how popular the place was around there the previous time they were there because although they had a pretty late dinner back then, there still was a lot of people. But he didn't think it would be so popular that people actually had to wait in a long line to get seats.
Chanyeol must've seen the horrified look on his roommate's face because when Baekhyun turned to him, he was smirking.
"Have faith in me roommate. I have more sense than you might think," Chanyeol said with a wink, effectively puzzling Baekhyun who just tilted his head back at him.
Smirking, Chanyeol walked with a slightly faster pace while Baekhyun just followed after him with his eyes, keeping his current pace. Chanyeol went straight for a door earning some disapproving look from the people who were at the start of the queue but he obviously paid no mind to that. He waved to somebody as he reached the door and it opened almost automatically. Chanyeol quickly waved Baekhyun over after, and receiving a mix of annoyed and disapproving looks from the people at the queue himself, Baekhyun decided to hurriedly jog closer and entered the restaurant right after Chanyeol.
Once inside, that's when he noticed that Luhan was standing right there with them and just then did Baekhyun remember that Chanyeol and Jongin happened to be friends with the son of the owner of the place so they had some lucky advantage.
"Good thing you called this morning to reserve a table or else you'd have to wait for a really long time or you'll have to eat somewhere else," Luhan said as he lead the way.
"Are Jongin and Kyungsoo here yet?" Chanyeol asked as they walked thru the noise and enthusiastic vibe of the people inside the restaurant.
"Nope, you two came first," Luhan only got to answer when they reached the table he reserved for them which was one of the closed off ones they had, close to the back and with a wall separating them from the rest of the restaurant. It wasn't completely closed with a door, but they had to make a turn to reach it so it was pretty much hidden from the rest which meant privacy for them.
Naturally, the two sat on one side of the table the same way they did the previous time. It wasn't difficult to tell that Jongin and Kyungsoo would want to sit together anyway, and neither of them wanted to get in the way of that and risk seeing more of the couple's honeymoon phase sweetness if they separated them even just a little.
"Are you going to order already or are you going to wait for the other two?" Luhan asked, suddenly with a couple of menus on his hands that the two couldn't figure out where he got from.
When Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun, the latter shrugged. "I am hungry already."
"Then we'll order first, but give us a few minutes to decide first hyung," Chanyeol said and Luhan quietly nodded before gracefully disappearing from their sights.
"Is it really okay to eat before they come?" Baekhyun asked, in slight doubt of eating ahead of his best friend. It wasn't really normal for him and Kyungsoo to not be deciding about this together.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. They won't mind. Besides, they're on a date so we don't know how late they might get," Chanyeol said and Baekhyun couldn't help but agree to that.
"You make a good point roommate," Baekhyun said, all doubts gone as his eyes quickly scanned the menus instantly.
Chanyeol chuckled at his roommate's reaction and lightly tousled the shorter's hair, making the other flinch.
"Hey!" Baekhyun playfully hissed at his roommate's action, but didn't avert his eyes from the menu, still busy figuring out what to order. "Don't do that. I'm older than you, remember?"
"I still don't want to consider that seeing as I look older than you," Chanyeol said in a low voice, obviously trying to be sly about it but not so much.
And that was when Baekhyun spared his roommate a quickly glare but the action only made the other chuckle.
"I was joking," Chanyeol laughed lightly. "Alright. Order whatever you want and that's what we'll have. By the way you're looking at the menu, I can tell that there are a lot of things you want to try, so just go right ahead."
"Seriously?" Baekhyun quickly brightened up, only throwing his roommate a short grateful look before his eyes focused back on the menu like a hawk. "Alright, you can't take that back roommate!"
When Luhan went back a few minutes later, Baekhyun ended up ordering Kimchi Pajeon, Mandu, Sundubu Jjigae, Galbitang, Sogalbi, Makchang and Seang Samgyeopsal. If Chanyeol was still shocked by his shorter roommate's appetite, he didn't show it. He simply added an order of a pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade for their drinks and Luhan went off again to get their orders ready.
"What are we supposed to do after this?" Chanyeol asked Baekhyun as they were left alone.
"What do you mean?" Baekhyun asked, slightly puzzled by the question.
"I mean, after lunch, do you want to go somewhere or do something? We only have a few days left before school officially starts, you know," Chanyeol stated and that's when Baekhyun started thinking about it.
"Now that you mention it, I feel like we're nearing our end," Baekhyun chuckled at the thought.
By then, another waiter appeared and served them their utensils, side dishes and started setting up the granite grill. The roommates quietly watched him work and kept quiet with timid smiles on their faces until he was gone.
"How about we invite the couple to go grocery shopping? Our ref's still empty and I'm not so comfortable about that fact," Chanyeol said as soon as they were left along again.
"Oh, that's a good idea. I'm sure Kyungsoo is dying to cook already. He'll love that," Baekhyun cheerfully agreed, but then a wince appeared on his face right after. "Dammit, I just remembered I'm still not done unpacking my boxes. I still have one box and a half to empty."
"Don't worry about that. I can just help you out with that once we get back," Chanyeol nonchalantly said as he picked up his chopsticks and started munching on the kimchi.
"Really? You don't mind?" Baekhyun asked, eyes brightening up so much as he looked at his roommate who just kept on eating the side dishes.
"Yeah. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to do," Chanyeol answered, just as nonchalantly as he did before. "Dammit, their kimchi here is really nice. We need a refill though."
Baekhyun chuckled as his eyes found the empty bowl of kimchi and just requested for a refill of that when the waiter came over again to start serving them their soup.
They were in the middle of eating, with the grill having been filled and emptied once already when the couple they were waiting for finally came.
"Wow, you couldn't wait?" Jongin asked with a frown as he watched the two eat continuously even while looking at him and Kyungsoo.
"We were hungry and we didn't know what time you would be coming," Chanyeol answered for the both of them seeing as Baekhyun's mouth was currently full and he didn't seem willing to hurriedly swallow his food. He wasn't about to stop savouring the flavour of the food in his mouth just to answer Jongin's complaint so he simply nodded to what his roommate said.
"Besides, it's not like you can't order for yourselves. And I'm not sharing our food with you, even you Kyung, sorry," Baekhyun said after he finally swallowed, grinning towards his best friend who simply shrugged back at him with the same grin on his face.
"That's fine, Baek. Just eat up," Kyungsoo kindly answered with a smile, sincerely happy to see his best friend eating so well and not complaining about how he left him alone for breakfast just because his boyfriend suddenly pulled him away for some early morning date.
"Anyway, there will be a couple of people joining us for lunch. We happened to meet my cousin on our way here so I invited her and her friend to join us. I hope you don't mind," Jongin said with a huge smile, talking mostly only to Chanyeol though, who simply shrugged.
"I don't mind," Chanyeol answered, and just for the heck of it, Baekhyun added, "A relative of yours? Huh. Should I be worried or horrified?"
Jongin threw Baekhyun a glare, satisfying Baekhyun well.
A waiter came over to hand them a couple of menus, and Jongin asked for a couple more for the other two who would be joining them. It was while Jongin and Kyungsoo were deciding on what to order when a couple of girls appeared with Luhan who brought a couple of chairs with him and asked everyone to scoot over so that he could add the chairs for the girls.
"Thanks, Lu," one of the girls said with a sweet eye smile towards the boy who simply bowed in front of her playfully and walked away with a chuckle when the girl lightly hit him on the arm.
"Hey, another new person," the other girl with a friendly smile said as he turned towards Baekhyun who the other guys just then noticed froze on his spot, his earlier continuous chewing and swallowing halted as his eyes focused directly on the girl who just noticed his presence.
"Oh, he's just Kyungsoo's friend," Jongin introduced him that lightly, even swatting his hand off as if saying it wasn't any important.
"Jongin!" Kyungsoo obviously didn't like the way his boyfriend introduce his best friend so he hit him quite heavily on the arm before looking back at the girl and repeated the introduction. "He's Byun Baekhyun. He's my best friend."
"I see," the girl said, looking back at the boy who was still staring at her. She simply smiled at him though, luckily not finding him odd at all so she offered a hand and said, "I'm Jongin's cousin and a hopefully reliable sunbae to you guys, Kim Taeyeon. Nice to meet you, Baekhyun-ssi."
For a moment, there was no response from Baekhyun at all. At least until he felt a more than light kick on his shin which brought him back to his senses so he could throw a quick glare at his best friend who just kicked him under the table, and then focus back on the girl who just introduced herself to him.
He took her hand, small and soft hand, and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Noona. You can drop the honorifics, by the way."
"That's great. Thanks, Baekhyun!" Taeyeon answered with a wider smile and then turned to introduce her friend too. "And this one here is Hwang Tiffany. She's also a sunbae of yours."
"Hi, Noona," Baekhyun also greeted the other girl who threw her an eye smile over the menu she was busily looking into.
"So you're Chanyeollie's roommate, huh?" It was Tiffany that broke the silence that took over when everyone got busy choosing what they wanted to eat, and the silence just naturally carried on even after the waiter left with the list of their orders.
Baekhyun simply answered with a nod, mouth busily chewing to answer verbally.
"Must be fun, being roommate with your friend. Taeyeon and I didn't know each other until we became roommates so it was unbelievably awkward at first. We didn't become close until out first term was almost over," Tiffany shared with a smile as she and Taeyeon laughed lightly at the memories.
Baekhyun shook his head lightly as he tried to swallow his food quickly. "Actually, I met Chanyeol for the first time when we moved in yesterday. Kyungsoo kind of threw me away in favour of rooming with Jongin."
"Baek!" Kyungsoo protested in shock of Baekhyun lightly bringing that up, making Baekhyun laugh of course.
"But it's alright. I think Chanyeol and I are getting along well, anyway," Baekhyun added with a smile towards his roommate who quietly smiled back at him.
"Well, at least that's a good thing," Taeyeon said and Baekhyun nodded enthusiastically.
The orders of the four arrived quicker than they thought, filling up their already filled up table. Good thing was that some of Baekhyun and Chanyeol's plates from earlier were already emptied by then so the waiter took them away to make room for the new orders. Jongin and Kyungsoo ordered almost as much as Baekhyun and Chanyeol did, but the girls decided to just order one dish each along with a platter of fruits for dessert.
"Anyway, what are your majors, Noona?" Baekhyun asked, the question directed to both of the girls but his eyes were too obviously focused on just one of them.
"Well, we're both music majors, but we're also taking Fine Arts as minor," Taeyeon answered, to which Tiffany nodded.
"I'm only taking up Basic Sketching, just to improve my drawing skills because unlike Taeyeon here, I only want to improve my drawing skills so I can draw my designs— fashion designs. Taeyeon, though, is an amazing painter. You should check out the gallery at the Fine Arts building. She has some paintings displayed in there and I'm telling you, they only display the best ones," Tiffany bragged about her best friend, causing the other to blush hard, especially with the way Baekhyun's eyes brightened up with admiration.
"Really? I want to see!" Baekhyun shamelessly exclaimed. "Oh, and Kyungsoo and I are actually Music majors too, and we both took Fine Arts as minors too."
"Seriously?" Taeyeon exclaimed, completely happy about having the same interests with the new guys. "Well, you guys know who to consult then, if you need anything."
"Of course! Hopefully, you won't regret saying that in the future though," Baekhyun enthusiastically nodded and laughed when the girls giggled at his words.
"Oh, and make sure to look for us when the club recruitment begins. There will be a lot of clubs out there, but we're on the best ones—" Taeyeon started to ramble on, but Tiffany was able to cut in saying, "Not that we're bragging about it, but we are and we're also among the officers now too."
"Yeah," Taeyeon continued, "And it would be great if you guys join the same clubs too. I swear, it will be fun."
"It will be!" Baekhyun nodded, enthusiasm over flowing at the Noona's invite. "Can I contact you by then, Noona?"
"Oh, of course," Taeyeon said, taking out her cellphone and without much doubt, handed it over to Baekhyun who also took out his cellphone and gave it to her.
The two of them exchanged numbers just like that, even taking selcas to save with their contact information, and the others simply watched the happenings unfold. Taeyeon looked at Baekhyun adoringly, happy to have a new dongsaeng who acts so cute unlike her own cousin who liked to believe that he was cool. On the other hand, Baekhyun clearly had a crush and everyone but Taeyeon could tell. Just the way he was being extra cute was a clear tell, but the others had to give him credit for being subtly flirty in his own way too.
"Speaking of clubs," Tiffany suddenly said, her eyes focused on the screen of her cellphone. "I think we have to go."
"Already?" Teayeon asked, scooting over to also look at the screen of Tiffany's cellphone, the other non hesitant to turn her cellphone towards her best friend. Taeyeon winced as soon as she confirmed that it was time. "I didn't think we'd have a meeting this early."
"Really? The term hasn't even started." It was Jongin that spoke, wondering why the Noonas were being called over for club already.
"Well, we're newly appointed officers so they probably want to orient us and then proceed to plan about recruitment and events," Tiffany explained.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to apply as officers," Taeyeon frowned at her best friend, but the other flatly ignored her as she finished the last of their fruit platter. The guys didn't even notice that the girls were already done with their food until they watched Tiffany take the last slice of pear.
"Let's go!" Tiffany jumped up, grabbing the frowning Taeyeon's wrist to drag her along.
"Don't worry about the bill, I'll take care of it Noona," Jongin shouted to the leaving girls, receiving back thanks and thumbs up from the two.
Just before disappearing at the turn, Tiffany looked back and said, "Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, don't forget to contact us before joining any club, alright? You're our recruits from now on. I'll hunt you down if you dare join other clubs!"
Taeyeon left without another word but waved at all of them with a wince-like smile as she let herself be dragged along by Tiffany.
The petite girl's threat sounded scarier than one might assume, especially when said with a completely pretty eye smile. So even when the girls were already gone, Kyungsoo turned to Baekhyun and said, "Baek, don't lose Taeyeon Noona's contact information, okay? We'll need that to join the clubs."
"Of course! There is no way I'm losing it," Baekhyun giggled meaningfully as he scanned thru the photo gallery of his cellphone where the selca Taeyeon took was automatically saved.
"I don't know how it was possible, but Jongin, nice job on having a pretty cousin," Baekhyun commented, utensils down, as he dreamily stared at the screen of his cellphone.
Shocked, Jongin didn't know what to say. It was the first time Baekhyun ever willingly said words of praise to him— kind of. And even if it wasn't a direct praise to him, he'd like to think that his boyfriend's most important friend still kind of praised him— and he wasn't quite sure how to react.
Even Kyungsoo was shocked at Baekhyun's words, but only because of the praise. He wasn't exactly shocked about Baekhyun's sudden infatuation because he knew his best friend well and he knew from the moment he met Jongin's cousin that she was perfectly Baekhyun's type. That was actually one of the reasons he initiated on inviting the girls to join them for lunch. He just didn't expect Baekhyun to be so quick to admit it.
"Okay, I'm gonna ask the obvious, just for the heck of it," Jongin slowly started, successfully tearing Baekhyun's attention off the screen of his cellphone. "Are you crushing on my cousin, Byun Baekhyun?"
Shrugging, Baekhyun jutted his lip out. "That might be a way to word it out." He kept nodding, before smiling genuinely at Jongin— that's a first too. "So, can you tell me more about Taeyeon Noona?"
Just as Jongin was about to open his mouth, they were all distracted by the tongs falling off the table and all their attentions turned to the person who dropped it. Chanyeol didn't look the least bit sorry though.
"Sorry, I just elbowed it when I turned," Chanyeol nonchalantly said with a blank expression on, then he just kept eating although the others kept on looking at him.
Baekhyun was the first one to tear his eyes away from his roommate though and focused back on Jongin. "So?"
"Well..." Jongin looked pretty doubtful to start, but when he turned to his boyfriend and Kyungsoo nodded at him, he sighed and continued, "She's a third year this coming term. As she mentioned earlier, she's a Music major and from what I know, she's one of the lead singers on their club as well as one of the most popular painters in the school. According to Luhan Hyung, she's one of the most popular girls in the school not only because of her looks, but also because of her talents. That's about it."
"That's not much, Kim Jongin," Baekhyun frowned, and seeing that somehow brought comfort to Jongin. He wasn't used to Baekhyun being all nice to him so if he had to admit, it was pretty creepy to have him act like he did a few minutes ago.
"Well, she's my cousin. It's awkward to talk about her this way," Jongin frowned back, and just like that, they were back to normal.
"Oh well. Just don't say anything bad about me to her, you understand?" Baekhyun just sighed as he threw a glare at the boy.
"I'll try my best to stop myself," Jongin said with a grin as he continued eating.
Baekhyun just hissed at him before focusing back on eating what's left of his food. That's when he noticed that Chanyeol had stopped eating by then, so he turned to his roommate.
"Are you done, Chanyeol? There's still quite a lot left," Baekhyun asked, motioning towards the food.
"Nah, I'm full already," Chanyeol simply answered before taking out his cellphone, the action appeared to be dismissive so Baekhyun didn't bother to ask him again, and instead focused on eating as much as he could so as not to waste food.
☺☻☻☺☻☺☻
When they talked about grocery shopping earlier, Baekhyun assumed it would be a fun thing to do with his roommate. He was pretty used to that because he and Kyungsoo usually did that before sleepovers, usually to buy snacks or ingredients for something he'd requested Kyungsoo to cook for him.
Instead of the fun he expected though, the atmosphere his roommate emitted scared him.
He started to notice the change in Chanyeol's mood after they left the restaurant. Unlike how he and Chanyeol joked around and talked while walking together before lunch, Chanyeol walked ahead of the group. Baekhyun tried to catch up to him initially, not wanting to look like a third wheel to Kyungsoo and Jongin, but his shorter legs made it impossible and tiring to try to catch up to Chanyeol's long strides.
He gave up at some point and instead decided to steal Kyungsoo from Jongin, who didn't put up much fight and instead walked ahead with Chanyeol who slowed down a little when Jongin approached him.
When they reached the super market, they had no choice but to split into pairs— by roommates— so they could decide together on what things to buy for their rooms and what food they wanted to stock up on. Kyungsoo seemed reluctant to leave Baekhyun with Chanyeol, but when Jongin started talking about what Kyungsoo could possibly cook for dinner, the shorter boy was quickly distracted away while making a mental list of ingredients he would need.
That was how Baekhyun ended up cruising the aisles with his roommate in an awkward silence.
By chance, Baekhyun saw Kyungsoo and Jongin while they were crossing towards the next aisle and he noticed how half full their cart was already. Compared to that, the cart Chanyeol was pushing as he walked ahead of him only had a pack-of-6 of toilet paper, a couple of rolls of paper towels, a couple of boxes of facial tissue— and that probably was because the first aisle they passed by was full of choices of tissues.
Baekhyun couldn't help but pout as they went on because he honestly had no idea why Chanyeol was acting so grumpy all of a sudden, and he didn't know what to do at all because it was only the second day since they'd known each other and it's the first time it happened for Chanyeol to be in a bad mood. He felt kind of betrayed because the roommate he knew was the cheerful and happy one. It felt like he was meeting Chanyeol for the first time all over again and this was not a Chanyeol he liked.
Despite that though, he risked to step up and saw an opportunity to talk when he found that they were already at the juice section.
"Chanyeol, what kind of juice would you like? I like orange the most, but if you like something else, then we should choose, right?" Baekhyun spoke up while grabbing a liter of fresh orange juice with pulp.
"Just take anything you want. I'll also take what I want," Chanyeol turned to him and answered but the smile Baekhyun was hoping for still didn't appear. He just grabbed his own liter of fresh pomegranate juice and then went on ahead.
Baekhyun didn't feel discouraged though, because at least, he still got Chanyeol to answer him. That should mean well, or at least Baekhyun hoped so and whispered, "Then I'll take a couple of cartons."
He dropped a couple of cartons of orange juice into the cart and then held on the side of it so that he was walking with Chanyeol and not behind him.
"Should we get fruits?" Baekhyun asked.
Chanyeol didn't answer, but he stirred the cart another way when they were about to go to the next aisle and the next thing Baekhyun knew, they were on the fruits section and he was choosing what fruits he wanted to stock up with. Chanyeol was choosing too, so Baekhyun waited for a moment and made sure to differ his choices from Chanyeol's, for variety's sake.
Although still not back to the comfortable, great roommates atmosphere they had from when they met yesterday until before lunch that day, Baekhyun still managed to have his fun while grocery shopping, mostly because of his failed attempts to make his roommate's mood turn into a better one. He wasn't sure if he was right, but he was pretty sure his roommate was suppressing his laughter when Baekhyun slipped at the chips aisle, but he still counted that as a check. They were also able to get a lot of things including some vegetables and a variety of meats. He wasn't sure if Chanyeol was a good cook, but he just wished his roommate would be in a good enough mood the next few days to share food with him.
When they reached the check out counter, Jongin and Kyungsoo were just behind them and if he thought before that they bought a lot, he wasn't thinking that anymore after seeing the couple's cart.
"How much are you planning to cook, Kyung?" Baekhyun asked with a shocked look at their cart full of ingredients. He almost couldn't see the other necessities they bought in the mountain of ingredients.
"This is for an entire week, Baek. And we're all guys. I'm pretty sure we'll eat a lot," Kyungsoo answered, also taking a peek at their cart. "You also bought quite a lot of ingredients."
"Chanyeol did," Baekhyun simply answered and turned to his roommate, hoping to hear an explanation for him and for Kyungsoo as well, but Chanyeol just kept his attention on placing the things they bought in front of the cashier so he didn't push.
Baekhyun just turned back to Kyungsoo with a sulky expression and waited for the bill to total. When it did and it summed up to a price he didn't expect, he felt thankful he had a roommate to share the bill with. What shocked him though was when Chanyeol brought a credit card out and paid for the full bill.
"Chanyeol?!" Baekhyun exclaimed when he got over the shock. "Why did you pay for the whole thing? We should've split the bill."
"Oh." Chanyeol simply looked back at him with furrowed brows. "Next time, then."
"Oh, okay," Baekhyun simply answered, not wanting to complain at this time, slightly afraid to make Chanyeol's mood turn for the worse.
They quietly waited beside the counter for Jongin and Kyungsoo to finish, and once they're done, Jongin weighed each of the bags and chose the lightest ones and gave them to Kyungsoo, who complained about being treated like a princess but took the bags when Jongin embarrassed him by kissing him on the cheek and saying, "Oh, Baby Soo, but you are my princess."
Baekhyun had to admit that it was fun to watch them, but his fun didn't last for long when he found his roommate already walking ahead of them with two bags on his hands and left another two for him. He took a deep breath before taking the two bags in his hands and huffed when he noticed how heavy they were. They probably weren't as heavy as the ones Chanyeol brought because his giant roommate had the bags with the cartons of juices and bottles of other drinks and ingredients while he had the dry ingredients and tissues, with some other things but he still couldn't believe how heavy they all were together.
He was just thankful that the super market was only on the same block as the campus and they didn't have to walk too far. Still, having to walk with heavy bags on both hands made the walk feel farther than it was and before he knew it, he was walking far behind the group with a frown and droplets of sweat appearing on the sides of his face.
Thankfully, he noticed that he was already at the entrance of the campus which meant the dorms should be near enough. He bent down and put the bags down for a moment and then huffed once before carrying them on his hands again.
"You really should exercise more," he suddenly heard a familiar deep voice spoke in front of him and with that, a huge, slightly crooked smile appeared on his face as he looked up at his roommate.
"I don't like sweating," he answered with his friendliest smile on.
"But you still need a little muscle in you," Chanyeol said before taking one of the bags in his hands without looking strained at all.
"Give me one of yours," Baekhyun chased behind Chanyeol but his roommate just threw him a sideways glance.
"I gave you the lighter bags," he simply said, making Baekhyun pout and went back to sulking.
"I really should exercise more," Baekhyung sulked on his own, and that was how he successfully got the smile he'd wanted from his roommate for almost two hours already.
"You're smiling!" Baekhyun exclaimed, quickly springing back from sulking.
"What?" Chanyeol's brows furrowed as he frowned again.
"No! Don't frown again! I've been trying to make you smile for hours, you can't just go back to frowning," Baekhyun childishly stomped and again, successfully made Chanyeol's grin appear.
"Fine, fine," Chanyeol said, exaggerating a smile when Baekhyun turned to him.
"Good! Why was your mood so bad all of a sudden anyway?" Baekhyun asked, sincerely curious, and also hoping to know what ticked the giant off so that he could avoid such scary encounter next time.
Chanyeol looked taken aback for a moment by Baekhyun's straightforward question but he merely shrugged later on. "I must've eaten something bad or I ate too much. I always get in a bad mood when I feel bloated."
It didn't make sense, but Baekhyun easily accepted his roommate's reasoning. "Huh, must be the second one. Because I ate everything and nothing was bad."
Chanyeol couldn't help but laugh at the shorter's answer and simply agreed.
"Hey! What are you two so slow for? We've been holding the elevator for a while now. Are you coming or not?" Jongin's voice suddenly took their attention and they both saw him irritably glaring at them from where he was holding the hold button of the elevator, most likely forced to do that by the peeking Kyungsoo behind him.
"Sheesh, you don't have to be so mean about it," Chanyeol said as he started to jog towards the elevator followed by Baekhyun who initially intended to slow down just to annoy Jongin but thought about how heavy all the bags were so he decided on hurrying too.
Making Chanyeol's mood better was enough accomplishment for one day. He'd reschedule annoying Jongin for another day.
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2016 © The Secret Iris
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