Chapter 26

“Are you still awake?”

Momentary silence.

“Yeah.”

We were cramped together in the small utility closet, lying down. Baekhyun could barely stretch out his legs, and I was in fetal position, leaning against his chest. I nuzzled my cheek against it, drawing in his scent.

“I see you’re sniffing me again,” he teased.

“Shut up,” I said, “I can sniff what I want.”

Without warning, and in the speed of light, Baekhyun flipped over me so that I was pinned to the ground with his arms. He relished the look of surprise on my face.

And then, he leaned close and brushed his lips against mine. It was feather-light and meek, totally unlike the way he usually kissed.

I kissed him back aggressively, so much that he was taken aback. Soon the kiss became urgent and animalistic, with moans and hair grabbing. Baekhyun started to trail kisses down my neck. It was like all these years of bottled-up angst and was finally being released.

“B-Baekhyun--” I gasped, as he started on my neck, “w-what about Gayoung?”

He barely stopped.

“Gayoung?” he said, “what about her?”

I pushed him off of me, panting.

“She was devastated that you dumped her!”

“I tried to do it nicely. I sent her flowers and stuff to say sorry.”

“But I comforted her in the bathroom while she was crying. I’m like, her friend now. How’s she gonna feel if she finds out I’m with you?”

“Talk to her,” he said, “I’m sure she’ll understand.”

We sat in silence, again. I saw him staring at me, earnestly, expectantly.

“Baekhyun,” I said, after a while, “where you being honest when you said that the reason why you pushed me away was because you weren’t sure whether you I reciprocated?”

He smiled. But it was too quick. Too forced.

“Of course, Myunghee. Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”

He closed his eyes and I regarded him skeptically. He was lying, I knew. But now was not the time to press for answers. Sighing, I closed my eyes.

And I was awakened by somebody screaming.

“What on earth are you kids doing in here?”

I sat up groggily. It was the custodian, of course, with a handful of teachers behind him. I felt my face grow hot.

Baekhyun was already up, leafing through a Grade 12 physics textbook.

“Pretty basic stuff,” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m really really sorry,” I sputtered, “you see, erm, we sort of got locked in last night and…”

“You guys didn’t do anything freaky in there, did you?”

“NO. No no no. No,” I said, laughing nervously.

“Because it’s happened before.”

Behind me, Baekhyun erupted into laughter.

//

“I knew it. I ing knew it.”

“I know, right? Glad it finally happened.”

Baekhyun and I were seated opposite to Hana and Sehun at a cafe.

“So,” Hana said, “tell us all the deets.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Deets? Really?”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun mouthed.

“Well, Myunghee’s been secretly in love with me for all these years, and when she finally got the guts to the confess I pitied her and forced myself to reciprocate and now I can’t tell that my feelings are forced so that pretty much makes them real.”

I hit Baekhyun on the back of his head.

“Oh shut up, dickwad! Actually, Baekhyun’s liked me since we were in diapers and he was so afraid of me not reciprocating that he put it off until junior year of highschool. And now we’re dating.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“Yeah.”

“So…” Hana says slowly, “is this your first official date as a couple?”

Baekhyun and I exchanged glances.

“Well..I guess?”

Hana all but explodes in joy.

“Sehun! Sehun, babe, we get to witness these two loverbirds together, finally.”

Sehun coughed self-consciously.

“Er...you know...we’ve been shipping you two from day one.”

“Yeah,” Hana says, “and Sehun’s more into it than I am!”

We all laughed as Sehun turned beet red. I was content. Everything was coming into place, finally.

A/N: took a rlly long time to update im so sorry!