"Sehunnie!"

Sehun felt his heart start pounding as Baekhyun called out for him. They'd just passed each other in the hall, Sehun heading to PE and Baekhyun, he knew, walking to Ethics. He stopped suddenly, causing the person pushing through the hall from behind him to run into his back and emit an annoyed grumble. Sehun didn't care, though, because Baekhyun had said his name and he'd be damned if he moved another inch before finding out what the smaller boy wanted.

"What's up, Baek?" Sehun wondered, once the other had gotten close enough not to yell anymore—and once Sehun had caught enough breath to work up the courage to actually say anything to his crush at all.

"I've got a hypothetical situation for you." Baekhyun looked excited and that made Sehun excited too, even though he knew that what Baekhyun was about to say was probably not at all what Sehun was hoping to hear. This was a thing with them, actually, where Baekhyun would present the situation with his newest crush in a hypothetical way, and Sehun would offer what advice he could without just confessing to his friend himself.

"Who is it this time?" Sehun wondered aloud, taking care not to sound too downtrodden or disheartened by the whole thing.

Baekhyun shook his head, but grinned. "Nope. That's not how this works, Sehunnie. You know that!" Baekhyun giggled and Sehun thought with a barely withheld groan that it was one of the most adorable things he'd probably ever heard. "Let's say," Baekhyun explained, "hypothetically, of course, that you liked an athlete."

"Talk about sports," Sehun dead panned. He had a wealth of experience with athletes—or one in particular, at least—and he knew that specific topic of discussion would get the proverbial ball rolling.

"I don't know anything about sports!" Baekhyun wailed as the late bell rang loudly to harmonize with him. Well, Sehun and Baekhyun were now both late for class, so Sehun figured he might as well just skip PE all together. As for Baekhyun, Sehun wasn't exactly sure how 'ethical' it was to skip, but he knew that if he brought it up, Baekhyun would start ranting about the pointlessness of it all, and Sehun just couldn't deal today.

"Go to one of his games, then," Sehun suggested. "That's what I do." He blushed instantly and had to physically restrain himself from covering his own mouth, because he suddenly realized he'd said too much. Luckily, Baekhyun was too consumed with his own meager love life to worry about the brief admission of Sehun's possibly more active one, and they moved on from there with no mention of Sehun's slip-up.

"I already said I know nothing about sports, Sehunnie." Baekhyun's voice was patient as if he were speaking to a child. "What's the point of going to one of his games if I don't know what's happening?"

Sehun shot his friend a long, knowing look. They both knew Baekhyun's attention would be wholly consumed by his crush, whether or not the guy was playing, so Sehun wasn't entirely sure why it mattered that Baekhyun wouldn't understand.

Baekhyun soon answered that unspoken question, though, when he looked up at Sehun through long lashes and pleaded cutely, "That's why you'll come to his games with me, won't you, Sehunnie?" Ah, Baekhyun wanted a wing man.

Sehun groaned and almost just nodded in defeat right then, but with Baekhyun, he remembered, it was important to clarify terms, so he asked, "How many games are we talking, here? There's the first soccer match of the season on Friday night. That should be enough."

Baekhyun's denial of that meager suggestion was frantic. "No, no!" He declared adamantly. "Not soccer, silly. And we have to go to all of them!"

"Baek," Sehun wasn't convinced, especially since Baekhyun probably couldn't tell the difference between soccer and quidditch, and it was evident in the younger's tone, "after the first time, you'll know enough that you won't need me. I'm not going to every single match, okay." He didn't add that his Fridays were instead usually reserved for basketball. "Junmyeon sunbae only needs to see you at one of his games to realize he has your support."

"Junmyeon?" Baekhyun was flabbergasted. "You think my crush is Junmyeon?! Hypothetically, obviously," he tacked on at the end, for consistency.

"Obviously," Sehun conceded with a slight nod. "And if it's not Jun-sunbae, who else would it be?" He racked his brain, but could think of any other athletes at their school that could possibly be of interest to his friend; admittedly, Baekhyun's tastes tended to vary drastically, but even he had some concepts of an ideal type.

Baekhyun glanced around the empty hallway like he expected the newest object of his affections to appear at any moment. He leaned toward Sehun, who basked in their close proximity while still trying to figure out the mystery man before Baekhyun could confess it to him. "Is it Yixing? Dance counts as a sport, I guess."

"Yah! Oh Sehun!" Baekhyun slapped Sehun good-naturedly across the chest and teased, "Stop guessing so carelessly. And you're the one who likes dancers. Remember Kai?" Sehun groaned and rolled his eyes because, yes, he did have very clear memories of his ex, especially ones that involved Kai's body all over Tao's for six months of the eight that he and Sehun had dated. He frowned, and Baekhyun's expression turned apologetic; the smaller boy hadn't meant to remind Sehun of Kai's infidelity, it had just accidentally happened that way.

"Sorry," Baekhyun sounded sincere, at least. "But my point is that, no, not Yixing. Think a little," he paused as he searched for an apt adjective, "taller."

"Park Chanyeol?" Sehun blurted before he could catch himself. He'd thought of the tallest student their school had to offer, and had guessed the president of the horticultural club without stopping to think that Park Chanyeol was even less athletic than Baekhyun.

"Pabo." Baekhyun hit Sehun again, and the slightly younger student whined about all the abuse he was receiving today. "You like it," Baekhyun sounded confident. And for good reason, too, because Sehun secretly really did.

The taller awkwardly laughed it off though, and made no comment, so Baekhyun finally just rolled his own eyes and admitted, "The basketball team's Chinese-Canadian captain. You know him, right? Wu Yifan; goes by Kris?"

Sehun was shocked, but tried not to show it. He did know Kris, quite well actually, and he was surprised that Baekhyun would set his sights on someone like that. "But he has a boyfriend." He remembered something important suddenly and rationalized his knowledge of that information with, "Or so the rumor goes."

Baekhyun rolled his eyes again. "First of all, I know that. Give me some credit, Sehunnie. Besides," he added thoughtfully, "that's just a rumor. If it's not true, then great, he's mine for the taking. If it is true, even better, maybe I can convince him to have two boyfriends instead of just one. Love all around. The more, the merrier, I say."

Baekhyun didn't normally say that actually, and he was usually quite the jealous type, so this time, Sehun had no problem physically expressing how shocked he was. He took an involuntary step back so that he didn't have to strain so much by looking directly down at the much shorter Baekhyun. "You're into that?" His volume was at the level of a whisper-yell because he was both awed and amazed, and didn't know exactly how to express what he was feeling. "Since when?"

"Liking someone changes things, my young friend," Baekhyun nodded wisely. This made Sehun scoff, though, because Baekhyun and he were basically the same age. Also, Baekhyun had liked so many people since the start of that school year alone, that Sehun was highly skeptical of any one of those crushes changing his friend in the slightest. "It's true!" Baekhyun defended indignantly. "I like him, and I think he's great. By that logic, whoever he deems worthy enough to like for himself must obviously be great, too. Don't you think?"

Sehun just nodded dumbly at his friend's thought process because Baekhyun had absolutely no idea what he was really talking about.

"And then," Baekhyun continued, oblivious to Sehun's thoughts, "I can totally like anyone who is smart enough to like Kris too; I'm sure of it."

"But what if Kris doesn't like you, though? And what if the other guy—assuming he exists—doesn't either?" Sehun asked nonchalantly, trying to contain his glee. This was quickly becoming the best day of his life, but it got even better when Baekhyun shrugged and declared confidently, "I'll make them."