Prompt: "Childhood Friends Drift Apart."

Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol

Words: ~1700

Dedicated to manganime98.

The carpets are worn from the tread of large feet, not so much the homey brown colour they once were before but a lifeless grey. Baekhyun slinks his toes into it, it’s lost some of its softness. He can see splashes of colour through the carpet, from drinks from parties spilled in the excitement to the splashes of paint that didn’t quite make it to the canvas, or the ink that flung itself out of his typewriter.

Baekhyun didn’t mind any of the stains, because it reminded him of just one person. In a room crowded with sweaty bodies grinding and dancing, that one person was all that mattered to him.

Park Chanyeol.

A tear escapes his eye and he brushes it away, sifting through his memories. There are just so many, too many to count, like that house party that had gotten a little out of hand that had left that splotch mark under the coffee table, to the time that Chanyeol had gotten a little too excited when Baekhyun had bought him paints for his birthday, leaving little rainbow dots on that one patch of carpet by the window.

Chanyeol was tall and lanky; with long limbs he always had trouble controlling. His fingers could wrap all the way around Baekhyun’s wrist. He stood perhaps eleven centimetres taller than Baekhyun (though Baekhyun never calculated the difference) and had a halo of unruly, curly caramel hair.

He liked to wear those wide black-rimmed glasses about even though his vision was completely perfect. With that stupid green army-print jumper that was far too big for him, and those dark denim jeans that hugged his legs too tightly. He said it looked cool, but Baekhyun knew it made him look like a giant idiot. Literally.

But that’s why he loved him.

Chanyeol was always happy.

In the beginning, when he had first met Chanyeol, Baekhyun had made sure to walk at least ten feet in front of him on the concrete sidewalk so it looked like they weren’t at all affiliated, despite the matching school uniforms and Chanyeol’s constant repetition of his name.

With that stupid grin plastered on his face at all times, Chanyeol was able to make everyone smile, and draw a lot of attention. Baekhyun had never been one for attention.

But Chanyeol had persevered. He slowly wove his way through the labyrinth Baekhyun had created to keep people out. Chanyeol tread closer and closer to Baekhyun until they were standing side by side, hand in hand, and people had to push past them to get down the sidewalk. Soon the attention didn’t mind him so much, and he would freely laugh at Chanyeol’s stupid jokes that made no sense as people stared.

When he had first moved in next door, Chanyeol had come bounding down the sidewalk, knocking excitedly on Baekhyun’s door. They were only young then, merely junior high schoolers, and Chanyeol had found it so exciting to see a trampoline in the backyard of his next-door neighbour’s house when he had claimed the bedroom with wide windows on the second floor that he just had to come across and introduce himself.

Baekhyun never really used the trampoline; it was more a thing his parents had put in the yard to fill up space. But soon, he found himself using it. If only for that stupidly annoying next-door neighbour that he had somehow attained.

When Baekhyun turned nineteen, he moved out. He was supposed to stay at the dorm rooms at the university he had chosen but, almost inevitably, he had dropped out within a month and managed to attain a part-time job at a music store, spending his savings on a small room for rent in a high-rise apartment block. Moving out was not something he truly wanted to do, but he was always angry.

Always angry because of Chanyeol.

Chanyeol had a girlfriend. A girl with an obnoxious laugh and a stupidly large forehead that only Chanyeol could possibly find attractive. Baekhyun hated it. He didn’t understand why, but he hated it when Chanyeol started drifting apart from him, stopped walking to school with him, and stopped talking to him. That’s when he started on the eyeliner and the greyscale clothes, and that’s when his parents started getting marriage counseling as they too began to drift apart.

“The truth? I like you. A lot. You make me happy. You make me laugh. You’re different. You’re a little crazy, and awkward, and your smile alone can make my day. I like you, Chanyeol.”

That’s what he had told Chanyeol. He wished he’d never told Chanyeol.

Chanyeol would have never left.

It was all Baekhyun ever wanted. Even though Chanyeol annoyed the hell out of him on a daily basis, Chanyeol was Chanyeol. He couldn’t fill the space Chanyeol had left behind with anyone else. Chanyeol was Chanyeol. Chanyeol’s jokes were Chanyeol’s jokes, Chanyeol’s smile was Chanyeol’s smile, and Chanyeol’s laugh was Chanyeol’s laugh. No one could replace that, even though Baekhyun kept trying to find someone that could.

No one was Chanyeol.

He’s back home today, and the air is strangely quiet. His mother kept the house and father now lives somewhere far off, in the city he thinks. He hasn’t talked to them in so long he feels slightly guilty. It has been months.

“Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun’s eyes flutter open, scanning the room. He knows that voice, that deep voice. He’s here, but Baekhyun can’t see him. Baekhyun shuts his eyes once more, his skin pale and eyelashes elongated with mascara and eyeliner. He’s wearing his favourite black shirt and worn black skinny jeans with black converse. His hair is black too, but that’s natural. He wears it in a side fringe.

“Baekhyun?” the voice repeats.

Baekhyun hears a clicking sound, and he jumps up from his place on the couch. He walks across to the window once he notices little scratches on it, gasping as a small stone almost comes flying at his nose.

“Chanyeol?”

He opens the window, fingers tracing the glass pane.

“Can I come in?” Chanyeol calls up; same goofy smile on his face as he waves perhaps too excitedly for Baekhyun’s liking.

Baekhyun shrugs, and Chanyeol runs to the door, ringing the doorbell repeatedly. He mumbles to himself as he pushes open the door, flinching as Chanyeol pulls him into a bear hug. Although this sort of thing was something they did so often in the past, it feels foreign to him.

“You’re back!” Chanyeol shouts excitedly.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun responds lifelessly. Chanyeol pouts, tapping him playfully on the arm.

“You’re no fun!” Chanyeol complains.

“How was university? Did you meet anyone exciting?” Chanyeol gushes, running into Baekhyun’s kitchen before pulling out a packet of chips from the cupboard. He kicks his shoes off and all but leaps across the coffee table, feet all over the couch. Baekhyun stands in the doorway in shock, stepping across the room.

“Why are you here?” he asks.

“Can’t I see my best friend? You thought you’d come all the way back here but not say hello? That’s totally rude, Baekhyun!” he says playfully.

Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun down on the couch beside him and quickly notices that Baekhyun is very, very tense. He wiggles about on the lounge, pushing Baekhyun until he’s lying on his stomach, running his long fingers down Baekhyun’s back, rubbing small circles as he does so. Baekhyun groans, trying to push the taller teen away but Chanyeol will have none of it.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun growls.

“You’re tense,” Chanyeol responds.

“Was it really that stressful at university?”

Baekhyun shakes his head, sighing into the touch.

“I quit. I didn’t even last a month there. I don’t think that sort of thing is for me,” Baekhyun explains.

“Why didn’t you come back then?”

Baekhyun inhales sharply as Chanyeol’s fingers linger a little too long on his shoulder blades.

“I didn’t want to come back.”

A small sigh, and silence.

It’s the only explanation Baekhyun is willing to give. How would Chanyeol feel if he said that Chanyeol was the reason he didn’t want to come back? How would Chanyeol react if Baekhyun told him he was still in love with him? Baekhyun liked that Chanyeol was paying him attention now, but how long would it last? How long before Chanyeol pushed him away once again for someone else?

How long before Chanyeol found him disgusting?

“I dumped her,” Chanyeol announces awkwardly, filling the silence.

Baekhyun breathes steadily, but his heart is pounding. He thinks Chanyeol can hear it, or at least feel it through his fingertips. Baekhyun thinks his whole body must be shaking.

“Why?” he manages to choke out.

“She wasn’t you.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen as he feels Chanyeol press himself against his back, his fingers snaking around Baekhyun’s waist. Chanyeol flips Baekhyun over until they’re lying intimately on the lounge, Baekhyun blushing a violent red.

“I… what… what are you saying?” Baekhyun stutters. Chanyeol shakes his head at his friend, brushing some of Baekhyun’s hair from his face.

“What you said. Before. You said ‘I like you’,” he exhales.

“And then I thought about things. I thought about her, and I thought about you. She wasn’t you. She never could be you. But when I had figured it all out for myself I was too late and you had left.”

Baekhyun sighs.

“And then I dumped her and she was upset and angry and I wanted you to tell me everything was OK, but you weren’t there. And I felt lonely. But it can’t have been as lonely as you felt. I should have been there for you. You were honest with me, but I pushed you away. I was scared, Baekhyun. I was scared that you would even feel like that about me and I was scared that that was how I was starting to feel about you.”

Chanyeol presses his lips to Baekhyun’s lips, his fingers running through the shorter teen’s hair. Baekhyun gasps as Chanyeol’s tongue slips inside his mouth, breathing frantically as Chanyeol nibbles on his bottom lip and runs his fingers teasingly down Baekhyun’s sides. When they pull apart, Baekhyun gasps for air, and Chanyeol nuzzles into Baekhyun’s neck.

“I like you. A lot. Do you still like me?” Chanyeol breathes, voice muffled.

“Yes,” Baekhyun responds.

“I like you a lot.”

Baekhyun smiles, chuckling lightly as he feels Chanyeol steady his breathing. Chanyeol’s chest rises and falls evenly. Baekhyun cannot lift him for his limbs are too long and heavy for his small frame, but he doesn’t care. There’s something comforting about Chanyeol’s arms around his waist. Something so comfortable he cannot help but let his head lull to the side, eyes closing, breath steadying.

It was all Baekhyun ever wanted.