Baekhyun is in a park an hour walk away from his apartment. He had the afternoon shift again today and decided not to be an lazy and go outside. He didn’t really know this part of the city that well considering everything he needed was on the other side. Although everything was new it didn’t feel different, and it made him realize that he never really had paid much attention to his surroundings when walking on familiar streets either.

He decides to stick around an area with lots of smaller shops. Most of them seems independent, with a few chain stores here and there. There’s no main road close by, and most of the buildings are apartment complexes and not offices like he’s used to.

He had been strolling around the blocks for half an hour or so until he found the park. The weather is chilly, but he still decides to sit down and relax for a bit. He spends a good fifteen minutes taking in the withering scenery and laughing at the two dogs playing together close to their owners.

He was about to pop a candy in his mouth when a tall figure blocks his view.

.

“Hi!”

.

He had literally walked the opposite way of work.

.

“What are you doing here at this hour?”

The thought of meeting him here had never even crossed his mind.

.

 “Don’t you have work at Kyungsoo’s now?”

 “Yeah but – “

You can’t lie yourself out of this one.

“ – No? I, uh – He, um... H-He gave me the day off.”

It’s not a complete lie. It’s not like he’s skipping work.

He tries to cover his stuttering with fussing over the candy he had dropped on the ground when the taller had scared the living out of him.  He stands up from the cold bench he was sitting on, whines silently and picks it up. The more he looks at it the more he realizes how much he had looked forward to eating it.

Of course this stupid ing idiot had to come and ruin his perfectly peaceful state.

He shoves the small strawberry flavored hard candy up in the creeps face.

“What I’m I going to do with this now!”

The culprit looks surprised at his childish behavior for a second, but laughs lightly.

“Well you can’t eat it anymore, so maybe throw it?” the creep, Chanyeol, says and takes the candy between his fingers. He walks up to the trashcan standing a few meters away from them, but somehow it still feels like he doesn’t leave Baekhyun’s personal bubble.

Baekhyun wants to just lay down, roll around on the ground and scream. Instead he pouts exaggeratedly behind his scarf. Chanyeol still sees it, and everything about him is annoying as he walks back to him.

“What’s up? Are you seriously sad about the candy? The five second rule isn’t a legit thing you know.”

The stalkers tone is teasing, but the amused smile on his lips is genuine.

Baekhyun doesn’t want to waste more time on this idiot.

“I know that.”  He says with a roll of his eyes, “I have to go, bye.”

Baekhyun doesn’t look at him when he walks past him. His sight is set straight ahead and he tells himself that he won’t look back before he’s out of the park. He’s walking the opposite way of where he entered, but that isn’t important right now. He makes sure to stomp on as many fallen leaves as possible. Most of them makes a satisfying crunching sound, but his mind is not set on laughing evilly like he usually would.

Chanyeol hadn’t said anything when he left, and it makes him a bit nervous. He’s usually very quick to say good bye back with a cheerful wave. Now he didn’t say anything. Baekhyun isn’t even sure if he looked at him.

He feels a bit rude. Chanyeol had been nice to him, but he still gave him the cold shoulder like that. He hadn’t really done anything creepy besides showing up from nowhere.

No, he’s a stalker. He know that we’ll meet again. That’s why he’s so calm. Baekhyun thinks, and quickens his steps.

Baekhyun makes it out of the park without turning around. He takes a turn to the left and keeps walking without a purpose. The road here is narrower and only a few people are walking around him.  There’s a beggar sitting at the sidewalk on the other side of the road, and several of the shops he passes are closed down.

With the emotions still bubbling inside of him from his parting with Chanyeol, the haunting feeling from the numerous dirty alleys that keeps appearing to his right washes over him. The noise from the cars and endless stream of people isn’t so loud here. He’s not used to it. It’s too silent.

He is scared. But he can’t turn back in case he meet Chanyeol.

He tries to calm himself down.

It’s not that bad, he thinks.

He has walked past some old people that don’t seem to mind.

Young mothers and their kids too.

He passed a nice flower shop not too long ago.

And what looked like a kindergarten.

There’s a nice piece of street art covering a wall on the other side of the road.

He stops to take a better look at the bright colors.

Like red, green, blue, yell –

He has no time to make a sound before his hands and knees meet the concrete. The next second there’s a hand on his shoulder turning him around harshly.

Above him isn’t a young gangster in a dark hoodie like Baekhyun had thought would jump out from the alleys. Instead there’s a middle-aged man with a worn out suite.

His face is wild. Cheeks sunken, spit dripping down the sides of his mouth with each wheezing breath he takes and eyes that look like they see everything and nothing all at once.

“Give me your ing pretty boy!”

Baekhyun receives a well-aimed kick in the balls before he has time to react. He curls in on himself in pain, which earns him a new kick in the back. He finally finds his voice and lets out a yelp in surprise.

“Shut the up and hurry!”

He hears a string of curses while he pats around for his wallet still in fetal position. It’s only a few seconds, but there’s a new kick at his back before he realizes that he’s lying on it and that it’s digging uncomfortably into his left side.

He feels the man move directly above him with a foot on each side of his head. He swiftly looks up to see what he’s doing because he needs to lift himself up to get the wallet.

He freezes.

There’s a knife pointing at him.

It’s so close that he needs to cross his eyes to look at it.

“I-I need to – “

“Give me your money before I ing kill you!” The mugger snarls.

“It’s in my pocket” he says barely audioably and slowly turns on his back. He keeps eye contact with the mugger while he pulls out his wallet.

The mugger’s attention is quickly on the wallet and he grabs it desperately. He steps away from Baekhyun and starts examining it for its content.

Somehow, Baekhyun’s body knows what to do, and he quickly stands up and runs.

His mind is in a daze, and his pulse is drumming in his ears.

He is still able to make out a faint The you want? and a yell in agony, before he rounds a corner.

Baekhyun doesn’t stop before he’s back in the park. He’s exhausted from running as fast as he could, but he doesn’t let himself rest before he reaches the bench where he met Chanyeol earlier.

He sprawls his body out on the bench and heaves a shaky sigh. His breaths are shallow and he feels sweat run down the side of his face. He swallows thickly and shuts his eyes. He doesn’t have time to feel dirty because he needs to get home and close the credit cards. He tries to calm his heart and even out his breath.

He was mugged.

Although he still feels a bit shaken, he’s not scared anymore.

Maybe a bit worried, but he knows what he needs to do.

He takes a look at his state. His jeans are slightly ripped at the knees and his skin has a few scratches. It will definitely develop bruises he thinks when he tries to bend them.

His hands are in a worse state, especially the left one. It’s still bleeding, and his whole palm is red from clenching it while he ran. The right one has a little rock stuck in it, which he quickly peels out.

He sighs again and heads home.

He needs to call the bank. And the police. Maybe stop by the casualty clinic. Probably call Tao too to ask for the day off. And maybe some self-defense lessons soon.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

A body bumps into his left shoulder from behind before he’s standing face to chest with someone.

It doesn’t take much time before he realizes that it’s just Chanyeol.

 “What are you doing?” Baekhyun’s voice sound breathless and weak. He doesn’t dare to look up, but he doesn’t shift his eyes from the dark blue parka either.

“I saw you running a-and look at you hand!” Chanyeol steps back just as Baekhyun was about to give in to the temptation of resting his head on his chest. He’s so tired and wants to go home. The taller carefully takes Baekhyun’s bloodied hand in his. “, Baekhyun. Are you alright? What happened?”

The lie falls out naturally.

“Don’t worry about it, I just tripped.” He pulls his hand back, but looks at the other and smiles faintly for good measure. “I should get going and clean it up. Thanks for worrying.”

“No, those cuts look pretty bad. You probably need a couple of stiches.” Chanyeol doesn’t grab for his hand this time, but places a comforting hand on his upper arm instead. “I can come with you to the clinic if you want?”

“It’s alright. It’s probably not that bad when I’ve washed away the blood.” Baekhyun laughs lightly to brighten up the mood because Chanyeol looks sadder than he himself feels.  “I’ll go home.”

“Let me walk with you.” His tone is more serious this time, but Baekhyun just shakes his head.

“It’s not that far.”

“Really? You live this far away from Kyungsoo’s?” Chanyeol asks in disbelief. “It’s not in walking distance.”

Baekhyun lowers his gaze to the dark blue parka in front of him again. It doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Yeah, so?”

There’s a slight pause while the taller slowly bends forward to meet his eyes. He has a smug grin on his face, which Baekhyun returns with a glare from behind his bangs.

“I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“What, you live around here?

“Maaaybe.” Chanyeol drags out while bending back again. Baekhyun just raises a brow.

 “Maybe?”

“Yeah maybe. So, for real this time, where are you going?”

“Home. Where are you going?”

“Which direction?” Chanyeol ignores the question, but Baekhyun lets it slide. If he can lie about where he lives, then Chanyeol can be secretive about where he’s going too. He points behind Chanyeol in the direction he first entered the park close to two hours ago.

“That way.”

“Cool, me too!” Chanyeol’s face splits into a big smile. He turns around and starts walking, but not before he grabs Baekhyun’s right hand. “And hey, don’t worry. I won’t walk you to your door, I promise I’ll leave when I have to. I can’t really be late…”

Baekhyun panics for a second. Can this dude read my mind? The thought quickly leaves when he feels Chanyeol lacing their fingers. He did not sign up for this.

“You know, this part of the city isn’t exactly safe, so it’s best that we go together.”

“Why are you being so friendly?” He brings up their linked hands for emphasize before letting go of Chanyeol’s hand. “We barely know each other…”

“A friend of Kyungsoo is a friend of mine.” He says happily and swings his giant body in a playful manner into Baekhyun’s little one. It makes Baekhyun loose his balance, but an arm is swung around his shoulder and he’s pulled into a side-hug. “Mostly because Kyungsoo doesn’t have many friends…” Chanyeol ads in with a pout like an afterthought. 

Baekhyun’s face is mashed into the giants chest, but even though it’s against everything he’s been going by the past week he still chooses to look up when he feels Chanyeol smile down at him instead of pulling away.

“And that –“ A finger boops his nose. “ – makes you awesome.”

2160 words
(I think this is the longest chapter so far?)

Chanyeol being Chanyeol.