Baekhyun covers his mouth, seeing Chanyeol's reaction? He did, he saw no emotions in his eyes and Baekhyun tears up a little.

 

Deciding that he already went to far, Baekhyun continued. 

 

"I like you. The way you smile at everyone, how caring you are towards those who aren't appreciated much, when you play basketball, or shout at the book you read for english, or even when you think your grin makes you look creepy. Those features are you Chanyeol and I love that about you. 

 

You're handsome, smart, caring, and would do anything for anyone even though you're tired." 

 

Baekhyun was breathing heavily from his outburst, he looks over at Chanyeol who is still standing not responding. 

 

"When you tell us, the anime club, that you think people don't notice when we tell you that you're popular. We notice Chanyeol, I notice. Because I love you!" Baekhyun almost shouts, he is then enveloped in a hug.

 

Park Chanyeol is hugging him. 

 

He feels like his heart is about to explode and feels tears strsaming down. 

 

Did Park Chanyeol just hug him?

 

Does that mean that Park Chanyeol actually likes him back? 

 

His hopes of Chanyeol actually liking him back comes crushing down. 

 

He said those words. That two words, that seven letter, 2 syllables words. 

 

"I'm sorry." 

 

He hears Chanyeol say it again, 

 

"I'm sorry. I can't love you back the way you love me. Thank you for noticing me and my weird self, thank you for loving me. But it isn't fair that you love when I don't love you."

 

Baekhyun breaks down and cries. He cries because it hurts. The way Chanyeol hugs him out of pity, the rejection, everything. It hurts himself to tear away from the hug but painstakingly, he does. 

 

"Thank you for being honest with me... Have a wonderful Christmas Chanyeol ssi." With that, he runs away. All the way to his house and sits in front of his front door, sobbing.

 

A figure walks by, he looks to see a ball of human huddled among himself and goes to see.

 

"Baekhyun?" Jongin sees Baekhyun, nose running and cheeks woth tear marks. The boy's eyes are closed but he is breathing heavily, panicking Jongin knocks on the door. Hopefully this house is Baekhyun's. 

 

A young man about 18 answers it, he looks to see Jongin holding his brother and was about to punch the living daylights out of him when he hears Baekhyun cough. 

 

"Listen, you've got 10 seconds to explain why my little brother is unconscious or else I call the police that you harrased him." Baekbom says to Jongin as he settles Baekhyun on the couch with a heavy blanket to warm him up. 

 

"I was just walking to my house when I saw him on your doorstep, I didn't do anything I swear." Jongin explains quickly, raising his hands in despair. 

 

Baekbom stares and finally sighs.

 

"Jongin, don't worry I believe you. I've babysat you to know that you are not that kind of person." Jongin coughs awkwardly.

 

"About that, can you not mention you babysat me when I was thirteen to Baekhyun please?" Baekbom laughs but agrees anyways. 

 

Baekbom offers the younger male a hot chocolate before he leaves as a thank you for Baekhyun, he declines claiming that his mother is waiting for him and leaves.

 

Baekbom sighs and sits in the loveseat beside the couch Baekhyun is currently occupying. 

 

"You could have just come in like a normal human and cry in your room." He says as he sips his hot chocolate.

 

------

 

Baekhyun dreaded the day they go back to school. The whole winter break was spent in his room with an occassional Jongin passing by to keep him company when his parents or brother aren't around.

 

Surprisingly Jongin lives two houses down from him but never seemed to cross paths. Until recently that is.

 

The morning they return, Jongin shows up at his doorstep with a huge smile and a bag of cookies. 

 

During their three week winter break, Baekhyun and Jongin developed a hobby of baking. Three Saturdays together baking different sweets for their families brought them a whole lot closer.

 

Baekhyun grins back at Jongin and holds up a bag of cookies as well. 

 

"Guess we'll be trading these at lunch eh?" Jongin says as Baekhyun locks his front door. 

 

"Just wait Kim, my cookies will taste better than yours." Baekhyun cackles and puts the scarf around his neck, Jongin side eyes him. 

 

"Baek, don't you think you should stop wearing that scarf? You said it brought you horrible memories, so why don't you just take it off." Baekhyun ponders for a bit, its become a habit for him to wear this scarf whenever he and Jongin go out. 

 

He always tells him that this scarf is just a memory of tragedy yet he never really told Jongin the reason. 

 

"I should, but its become a habit really so now I just wear it without thinking." 

 

They were in front of the school entrance, Jongin stopped in his tracks and so did Baekhyun. 

 

Jongin removes the scarf around Baekhyun and replaces it with his own. Baekhyun was shocked but it gave a fluttering feeling on his stomach, the same way Chanyeol did. 

 

Once the scarf is placed around Baekhyun, he couldn't help but tear up a little. Jongin panicked. 

 

"Baekhyun ah, are you alright? Did you want your scarf back?" Baekhyun shakes his head and goes to hug Jongin. 

 

Jongin was surprised but hugged back with emotions. 

 

"Thank you." He hears Baekhyun whisper and smiles.

 

The crowd watched the little scene and most found it adorable that the two couple exchanged smiles and walked down hand in hand. 

 

Everyone but a certain giant.

 

----

 

Word that the Dance team captain snagged a cute puppy spread like wild fire. The student body is screaming with feels everytime Jongin would come to pick up and drop Baekhyun off to his classes, sometimes girls would squeal at the innocent pecks Jongin would give Baekhyun. 

 

During lunch, Jongin is lucky to be in the same Chemisty class as Baekhyun. They headed off together to the cafeteria, not aware of the pair of eyes watching them. 

 

They sat down at Jongin's table where he introduced Baekhyun to the gang. 

 

He met Luhan, Sehun's boyfriend (of course he knew Sehun from math class though), then there was Yixing the vice captain of the dance team, Minseok and Jongdae, and then there's Joonmyun. 

 

Jongin introduced him as the gang's mother, to which Joonmyun protested to but ended up with a piece of lettuce getting thrown at him. 

 

In the end, Joonmyun made everyone clean up the mess they made and welcomed Baekhyun with open arms and a celebration after school. 

 

After lunch, Baekhyun had a spare so he opted to head to the library to finish some homework. On his way there, he bumped into Chanyeol.

 

"Hey Baek..." Chanyeol greeted him, Baekhyun replied with a bow and was about to dash when Chanyeol took hold of his wrist.

 

Hesitantly, Baekhyun swallowed the lump forming in his throat and looked up. He regretted it immediately as flashes of that night bombarded him, he struggled to remove his arms away from Chanyeol's grip but to no avail as he is physically weaker than Chanyeol.

 

'Curse my upper body strength or lack of.' He thought to himself, and decided to let Chanyeol talk.

 

"Can we take this somewhere else, I have study hall right now so I'm free." Baekhyun nodded indicating that he too has a free period. 

 

Chanyeol took them to caf, where only 5 students were there. 

 

Baekhyun sat in front of Chanyeol fidgeting in his spot as Chanyeol stared him down. 

 

"I, uh, I heard you and Kim Jongin are a couple now." Baekhyun looked up, he wasn't even sure if Jongin and him are together, he just assumed they were. 

 

"Uh, I guess we are. Honestly he never asked me so I'm not sure where we stand at this point." That gave Chanyeol a chance. 

 

"Listen, I'm sorry about what happened that night--" Chanyeol started,

 

"Leave it alone Park, I heard what you had to say." Baekhyun said coldly. 

 

"Ok maybe you did but listen Baek--"

 

"Don't call me that!" That sudden outburst shocked Chanyeol, the 5 others in the cafeteria, and even Baekhyun. "Don't call me that... Only Jonginnie can call me that." Baekhyun whispered this time with his head down.

 

"Baekhyun! I am sorry but you aren't listening to what I'm saying!" Chanyeol whispered angrily, just a mention of 'Jonginnie' made his blood boil. Baekhyun stayed quiet, indicating that he is listening.

 

"Now that I got your attention, let me explain myself." Chanyeol took a deep breathe and started talking again.

 

"After you left, I walked around some more. I don't like guys, I always prefferred girls. But with the way I acted around you, I guess it was my fault for leading you on like that. 

 

Throughout the entire three weeks of break, I realized that you noticed little things about me but I wondered if what you said is true. Tell me Baekhyun, did you really mean it?"

 

Baekhyun was quiet for a moment then he started to talk.

 

"I like you Park Chanyeol, those things weren't even as close to what I know about you. I know you play guitar, on the weekends you head to the park to practice basketball to be as good as the captain, I know that when you smile a crinkle around your eyes would appear as well as a slight dimple. Yeah I don't know about, but I do know that what I said, I meant it." Chanyeol sat there thinking how a boy he hardly talked to would notice such things, not even his own friends would see that he had a slight dimple.

 

"Baekhyun.." A voice croaked out, Jongin revealed himself from the pillar he was hiding in.

 

"I came to check on you when you didn't answer my texts, I see you were busy." Jongin took a step back and ran to who knows, as long as he doesn't have to see Baekhyun or Chanyeol.

 

"Jonginnie.. COME BACK!!" Baekhyun ran out of the cafeteria to find Jongin.

 

Chanyeol was left there to think.

 

 

-----

 

 

"Jongin.. Where are you??" A frantic Baekhyun said to himself, he ran out in the cold to the gymnasium. There he found a sobbing Jongin trying to aim for a basket with every ball he threw.

 

"Stupid Chanyeol! Stupid Baekhyun!" With every shot he missed which made him more angrier. Finally he has had enough and growled loudly. 

 

"ARRGH!! Why can't I just be Chanyeol?!?" He shouts to one in particular.

 

"Because you're Jongin." A small voice cause Jongin to whip his head around to see Baekhyun there standing with a basketball in hand.

 

"What do you want? You already took my heart and broke it, what else do you want?!" Baekhyun flinched at the volume his sweet Jongin used, he isn't used to this. 

 

"I'm here to get you." Baekhyun said ashe slowly neared Jongin who took a step back. 

 

"Jonginnie.. Mian. I'm sorry." Baekhyun pleaded as he took another step.

 

"Yeah well I've heard enough of those already. Baekhyun what do I have to do for you to like me? I can't shoot a basket for my life, I am not smart, nor am I tall like Park but I have other things as well." Jongin knew tears were for the weak but Baekhyun just threw his heart out, what's he supposed to do?

 

"I don't want another Chanyeol, the last one broke my heart. What I want is my Jonginnie, I want you to be yourself. You aren't good at basketball but you are good at dancing. You are the sweetest boy I have ever met. You are you and no one can ever replace it."

 

"Then why do you love Chanyeol more than me?" Tears were streaming down his face and Baekhyun has never seen Jongin with his guard down. Not even when one of his beloved dogs died during Christmas day, this Jongin is so vulnerable and fragile. 

 

"Look at you, I finally get to see you like this. Being you. Jongin you are smart, handsome, talented, you are you. And I love you for that." Jongin sobbed harder, shaking his head, 

 

"No! I'm strong, just like Chanyeol. That's why you have to love me!" Jongin was so tired of this, why can't Baekhyun just love him.

 

"How can I love you if you're someone else?" Baekhyun asked as he got closer to Jongin who was now shaking.

 

"How can I love you if you're not the Jongin who makes me smile with hus goofy antics, or his adorable smile, or the way he hides his pain only to be seen through his eyes? How can I ever love Jongin who isn't like that?" Jongin cried his heart out, Baekhyun stood there ready to embrace him.

 

"I love you as Kim Jongin not Chanyeol or anyone else, you got that?" Jongin nodded and let his hyung embrace him.

 

Jongin woke three hours later in the same gym, his eyes scanned for Baekhyun but calmed when he heard a light snoring. Looking up, he noticed that Baekhyun's lap cushioned his head and is also asleep. He smiled and leaned up to kiss Baekhyun's nose, startling the older awake. 

 

"Let's go home hyung."

 

----------------------------                       Hiya!! I welcome you my beautiful subscribers and silent readers haha anyways please leave comments subscribe and tell what im doing wrong no im jks but please comment subscribe and upvotr