Chanyeol and Jongin made their way down the hallway, saying "hi" to friends on the way. Chanyeol voiced something to Jongin that had been bothering him.

“So, are you sure you’re going to be completely ruthless about this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know. You’re refusing to help at all, and I mean come on. It’s a little unfair.”

“How exactly is this unfair?” Jongin asked incredulouly, nodding to a friend as they passed. “We have a bet, hyung. I’m not supposed to help you at all. In fact, I’m supposed to be trying to sabotage you at every given opportunity.”

Chanyeol nodded. “I’m quite aware. But really Jongin. I have to SEDUCE A GUY. You could at least have a little sympathy.”

Chanyeol could see Jongin cracking a little, but still sticking to his guns.

“A bet’s a bet,” he replied after a few moments.

Chanyeol sighed, knowing he’d get nowhere at that moment. He would have to work on Jongin over a period of time before the other boy agreed to not be so harsh on him during the bet. It would be hard enough seducing a guy without Jongin interfering every other second. Which he would without a doubt do.

All of a sudden, Chanyeol caught sight of a mop of truly messy hair heading his way and a flip of his stomach told him that his eyes were correct: Byun Baekhyun was walking in the opposite direction than him and Jongin, and would pass them soon.

Jongin raised a brow at Chanyeol's minor heart attack and sighed. “What is it this time?”

“Baekhyun, 12 o’clock,” he whispered. Jongin groaned.

“Please tell me we aren’t returning to clock code to locate people again. That was a phase that went on for way too long.”

But Chanyeol wasn’t listening to him. He was too busy trying to figure out what to do when he passed Baekhyun. Unfortunately, the only thing that came to mind was Kyungsoo's pathetic suggestion of saying hi in the hallway.

As the said boy approached, Chanyeol prepared himself by placing an extra large grin on his face. In fact, the grin was so big that it was probably freaking some people out. It actually hurt him to smile this wide.

As Baekhyun passed by, Chanyeol looked directly at the boy with his creepy grin and said, “Hi, Baek!”

He was not prepared for the mildly horrified look Baekhyun shot him before hurrying off without uttering a word in response.

Chanyeol felt his cheeks flush bright red as he wondered what in the hell he had just done.

Jongin burst into uncontrollable laughter, slapping his blushing friend on the back. “Welcome the awkwardness,” he choked out between snorts. “Soak it all in, Yeol. That was priceless.” 

Chanyeol buried his face in his hands as they walked, crashing into several people. “I honestly have no idea what just possessed me to do that. What the hell is wrong with me?! I need to text Kyungsoo and yell at him, this is all his fault.”

He fished his phone out of his pocket while Jongin's loud laugh faded into relentless giggles.

“You sound like a baby unicorn crying,” Chanyeol said grumpily to Jongin, who completely ignored him.

Chanyeol typed out an angry message to Kyungsoo and sent it. He tried not to think about what be had just done.

 To: Kyungsoo 

took ur advice, said hi to Baekhyun. he officially thinks im a grade a freak now. cheers.  -yeol

To: Chanyeol 

Not my fault u didnt make it less creepy, its what I wouldve done anyway.  -Kyungsoo xx

To: Kyungsoo 

yeah, but u have the innocent puppy face to help you get away with creepy !  - yeol

Chanyeol turned to Jongin who had finally managed to stifle his giggles. “This is great. Baekhyun now thinks I am the single creepiest person on the face of the planet. What am I supposed to do now?”

Jongin sighed, letting out one last chuckle. “I suppose I could help you out a little… But you do realize this upsets the odds, right?”

Chanyeol nodded. “Now if I win, you only have to pay me 100.000 won. I’ll give you 250.000 won if you win.”

Jongin nodded. “Normally I’d never do this, but that was so bad that I’ll make an exception just this once.”

They arrived at their Chemistry classroom. Upon walking into the room, they discovered that they had a test that  both of them had forgotten about. Oh, well. Life isn’t all about chemistry, you know.

Chanyeol took the grand opportunity to place down bull answers to everything on his test and hand it in during the first five minute of class. Ignoring the exasperated sigh of his teacher, he went back to his seat and proceeeded to text Kyungsoo for advice. 

Chanyeol honestly didn’t know what was wrong with him. Why was he failing at this? He was supposed to be smooth, damnit! 

He managed to get some advice from his friend  when the lad finally texted back. That boy was too invested in his edcation for his own good.

 Kyungsoo had suggested that Chanyeol will just try to be friends with Baekhyun first, instead of going straight to flirting. They figured flirting would scare the poor boy off even more, seeing how he already thought Chanyeol was a total creep. Life wasn’t exactly smiling down at Chanyeol right now.

To make matters worse, he couldn’t stop replaying the horrible moment in his mind. Baekhyun’s shocked face told him one thing: Jongin was in a good place to win this bet right around now. 

After Chemistry, Chanyeol and Jongin headed downstairs to social studies. Social studies was one of Chanyeol's favorite classes. Not because of the subject, god no Chan hated histoy. Rather it was the teacher that made the class, as is usually the case. Ms. Park was the much-loved history teacher, with straight brown hair and bright eyes. She was young, kind and funny and always gave Chanyeol extensions on his work.

However lately she had been very stressed, as she was getting married in a week. There was much to do for a wedding. Chanyeol was glad he didn’t have to plan any weddings- it seemed a right nightmare.

On the way to class, Chanyeol had yet another minor heart attack when he realized that Baekhyun was in that class with them.

“Jongie, I’m not sure I can face Baekhyun so soon after The Mistake. Perhaps in 10 years I’ll be able to forget about it?”

Jongin shot him a look. “Hyung, chill. You’re fine. It’s just a dude, right? You never get this flustered over a girl, so what’s the problem? Anyway, you’ll have to see him sooner rather than later anyway because of the bet. Unless you’re forfeiting?” Jongin finished in a question, eyeing Chanyeol.

The other shook his head very fast. “Not giving up. Just nervous. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not trying to seduce a girl. It’s a guy this time. Girls and guys are very different, I’ll have you know.”

“I know. No need to get your knickers in a twist, my dear.”

By this time, they had reached the classroom and walked inside. Chanyeol's eyes immediately sought out Baekhyun, who kept his own eyes studiously on his desk. 

Chanyeol heaved a sigh and trudged over to his and Jongin’s seats. Honestly, this was his life.

Instead of Ms. Park sitting at the desk at the front, it was a substitute teacher Chanyeol noted with disappointment. Seeing Ms. Park was one of the high points of his day.

Chanyeol sat next to Jongin in silence as they waited for class to start. About a minute before the bell, Zhang Yixing walked into class and sat next to Baekhyun.

Chanyeol watched as Baekhyun leaned over to Yixing and whispered something to him. When he was done, his friend burst into loud laughter and sneaked surreptitious glances at Chanyeol. He was absolutely certain that Baekhyun had just told Yixing about the sheer awkwardness Chanyeol had created between them.

Jongin noticed their exchange as well and burst out laughing once again, jabbing Chanyeol in the gut with his elbow. The other had to physically restrain himself from punching the tanned boy  square in the neck.

When the bell rang, the sub stood up and addressed the class. 

“Alright, your teacher left me with intructions to tell you that you have a project on culture around the world coming up, and you all have to pick partners. She has left here an assortment of subjects to choose from, and you’re going to be picking out of a hat to see what subject you get. Whatever is written on the piece of paper is your topic. You have five minutes to choose partners and pick your topic, and then you have to read from the textbook silently. Alright, so choose your partners.”

Chanyeol opened his mouth into a gaping silent scream and planted his face directly in front of Jongin’s. “Fancy being my partner?” He asked in a sarcastically polite way. 

Jongin thwacked him in the head. “Sorry, hyung. This is the one time I’m helping you with this bet.” 

“What?” Chanyeol asked, confused. “You don’t seem to be helping me at all right now, actually.”

Jongin sighed exasperatedly. “No, Yeol. But I’m about to do something extremely generous.”

With that, Jongin stood up and walked over to where Baekhyun and Yixing were sitting. As he approached them, they stopped their conversation and stared up at him.

Jongin smiled at the two of them. “Hello,” he said simply.

“…Hi,” they both murmured back, exchanging questioning glances with eachother.

Jongin smiled. “Was just wondering if you’d like to be my partner, Yixing.”

The Chinese boy seemed shocked. “Aren’t you working with Park Chanyeol?” he asked. The said one, who was watching the conversation, felt his cheeks heat up at the sudden glance Baekhyun spared him.

Jongin shrugged easily. “Wanted a change of scenery. So, what’ll it be?”

“Well, I kind of assumed I’d be working with Baekhyun… Who would you work with?” He directed the last part to his friend.

“Guess If you really wanted to work with Kim Jongin, I’d work with Park Chanyeol, he mumbled, shrugging.

“Youre okay with this mate?” Yixing asked, just to make sure. Baekhyun snorted. 

“Xing, do whatever you want. It’s okay. Really.”

“Alright,” Yixing gathered up his books and stood up, ready to follow Jongin back over to where Chanyeol was sitting. “Coming, Baek?” he asked.

Baekhyun nodded, getting his books slowly. If he was honest, he didn’t want to work with Park Chanyeol. It was just too risky to have to talk to someone besides Yixing often, and he would undoubtedly have to do that with Chanyeol.

Not only that, but the fact that Chanyeol said hi to him in the hallway out of completely nowhere after staring at him all day didn’t exactly scream coincidence. Baekhyun was almost certain that the popular boy was up to something. He just flat out didn’t trust him.

——

Chanyeol bit the inside of his cheek as he watched Baekhyun get his books and make his way over to Chanyeol's chair. When Baekhyun arrived, he dropped his books down on the desk next to Chanyeol.

He turned to him, who became even more nervous. He took a split second to reflect on the fact that he was nervous, but squashed it into insignificance before he could really think about it too deeply.

“So, guess we’re working together, since Jongin ditched you and Yixing ditched me.”

To say Chanyeol was suprised to hear what Baekhyun’s voice really sounded like was an understatement. The boy's voice was one of the best speaking voices Chanyeol had ever heard. A gentle, deep, and smooth tone coupled with slow speech made Chanyeol automatically associate Baekhyun’s voice with melted chocolate and sleep and being utterly relaxed.

In fact, when he heard Baekhyun's voice his nervousness left his body. In its place was a feeling of comfort and complacency. 

“Yes, it’s does seem that way. I’m Chanyeol, by the way, if you didn’t know.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows raised. “I’d tell you my name, but it seems you already know it,” he said with a straight face, but a trace of amusement colored his words. 

Chanyeol flushed. “Yeah, sorry about that before, that was really just awkward for everyone involved. I’d explain it but I … can’t.”

“I’ll let it go, for this time. Anyway, so do you want to go pick the topic?” 

Chanyeol nodded, standing up. Baekhyun followed him to the front of the room. 

When they reached the hat, Baekhyun stuck his hand inside and pulled out a slip of paper.

“‘Astrophysics’,” he read. He shared a confused glance with Chanyeol.

“Now I could be wrong, but I was almost certain this was a history class,” Baekhyun continued.

Chanyeol laughed. “It is. I’m just as confused as you are.”

“Well what are we supposed to do?”

Chanyeol grinned as they made their way back to their seats. “Dont worry. I’m an expert at like this. All we have to do is do a little work on the project, then go to the teacher, show them the work you did, convince them that it was too hard a subject to give out, and they give you a different topic! It’s so easy, it’s great.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows raised. “They let you get away with that?” he asked, a faint smile growing on his face.

Chanyeol wavered. “Yeah! Well, actually usually only Ms Park. And besides, with her wedding and all, I can’t really see her giving two s about what we do our project on, yeah?”

“True. So, where are we gonna work today? Let’s not do it at my house,” Baekhyun added quickly.

Chanyeol thought that was a little suspicious, but decided not to comment.

“Sure, we could work at my house."

Baekhyun hid a smile as he ran a hand through his hair. “I am fine with that,” he said, finally letting a little bit of a smile show. 

Chanyeol grinned. “Great! So now that’s all settled. Come to my house at 5 pm tonight.” 

After Chanyeol told Baekhyun his address and how to get to his house, the bell rang. Smiling a good-bye at his new friend, he walked over to where Jongin and Yixing were sitting and picked his friend up by his ear.

“Lets go Jongie, we got to do”,” Chanyeol sang fondly. Ignoring Jongin's shouts of protest, Chanyeol kept a firm hold on his ear as they exited the room.

Releasing Jongin's ear and dodging the punch thrown his way, Chanyeol waited until they were far away from the classroom before he turned and grinned smugly in Jongin's face.

“Guess who’s coming to my house later?” Chanyeol asked Jongin happily. 

The other boy rolled his eyes. “It means nothing. You’re working on a project together.”

“Its still a start!”

And it was. It could only go uphill from here.