Rewind (III): Baekhyun

Gangdong library. Baekhyun wanted to rip his hair out.

Last time he had been at Gangdong library, he had crashed into Minjoon (seriously, what was Choi Minjoon doing at a library?) and they had… well, gotten into a fight. Someway or another, he had knocked over a bookshelf (a small one, he insisted), almost kicked a librarian in a face… and, well… in the end, messed up rather badly. He was supposed to never return to this place ever again, and Baekhyun didn’t have any objections with that. There were tons of libraries in Seoul, and he didn’t like places like libraries either.

However, he didn’t expect Choi to go as far as make someone tutor him, and for that person to actually agree on it -- well, Baekhyun really didn’t expect that. And after that talk with Iseul on the rooftop, some part of him was still slightly in awe of the girl. She’d punched him square in the face, anyways. So maybe, he thought. Maybe he’d go to the library after all that time. Just once. He could persuade her there that they didn’t need to actually do this stupid arrangement Choi had made up.

Having Iseul agree with Choi was bad enough, Baekhyun thought as he dragged his feet along the sidewalk, staring angrily at the building in front of him. Gangdong Library, it read. But she had to chose, out of every single freaking library in Seoul, this one. And then leave before I could tell her that I cannot go here. I’ve been banned. Freaking banned.

And that librarian that had broke him and Minjoon apart (dear lord, she was scary. And strong. She had broken two fighting teenage boys apart by herself) had been sitting at the front desk, so that meant Baekhyun had no way of going through the front. He remembered rather well, in fact, as she grabbed his and Minjoon’s cheeks, looked them straight in the eye, and told them that they would be sorry if they ever came back.

Did she still remember him? Probably.

The thought of that itself made Baekhyun scowl at nothing in general. Then there was the fact that Baekhyun truthfully was quite good at chemistry. In fact, it was, secretly, one of his favourite subjects -- frankly why he had picked it to do bad in -- because he actually knew everything, and that gave him control over how well he wanted to do on tests because he already knew the answer, and could know which was the right one. But then he somehow thought that maybe, just maybe, he could get Baekbeom’s attention if he failed at something in school. Maybe Choi would want to talk to his parents -- or legal guardians, whatever -- and that was Baekbeom.

Instead, his chemistry teacher resorted in making someone freaking tutor him. He kicked at a stone on the sidewalk angrily, though all he managed to do was stub his toe.

Dejectedly, Baekhyun wondered what to do. The clock on his phone said that it was twelve o’six, and that meant he was already late. Which ruined his plans of standing at the front of the library and waiting for her to show up, because there was a possibility that she was already inside.

And then he got one of his genius plans that always ended up in disaster.

There was a back entrance to the library -- he had seen it once -- and if he could get through there, then he wouldn’t have her see him, and he could go through and maybe go upstairs. There was a studying area upstairs -- Iseul was bound to go there too, right?

To his immense relief, the back door of the library (which was next to two giant trash cans -- the smell made his insides turn) wasn’t locked, though when Baekhyun tried the door, he gave a little too much force into the pull. Apart from the screeching sound from the rusty hinges that made him cringe, it almost flew open and slammed into one of the metal trash cans, giving a scarily loud crash. Baekhyun wanted to melt into the ground.

That wasn’t the end of it, though -- the floorboards let out a creaking groan, and Baekhyun almost jumped out of his skin. He wondered when the torture was going to be over.

Thankfully, Baekhyun discovered a stairwell, and, after attempting to shut the door quietly behind him (which didn’t actually work), he crept up as quietly as he could.

The stairs squeaked at each step, and he cursed Choi at each step, too.

***

Being taught by Iseul, Baekhyun had to admit, wasn’t as bad as he first thought it was.

If this had happened before he had talked to Iseul on the rooftop, Baekhyun would’ve vouched that he would’ve ditched her. However, after her breakdown on the roof that day, the thought itself made him feel a little guilty. He kind of admired her, actually -- she was so calm, so collected, he never would’ve guessed. Then again, some things began to make sense -- why she had been so curious about his parents, etcetera.

He learned things about her he never would’ve guessed (though it was rather like a silent agreement between them two to avoid the topic of family. Iseul never asked about his and vice versa. The one time she kept probing about his brother, Baekhyun had lost it and stormed out of the library. She never did again after that, and though he felt bad for being rude, he hadn’t been able to help himself at that time, nor was he able to summon up the pride for actually apologizing about it afterwards). She liked reading. She lived with her grandmother. She was a rather awkward person -- Baekhyun truthfully never guessed -- the only emotion he used to feel towards her was a strong disliking and anger, and he never bothered to wonder what she really was like.

She wasn’t as rude as he thought -- maybe a little insensitive at time, but she and Chanyeol shared the same problem.

And really, he realized, somewhere along the way, that she wasn’t at all as bad as he had painted her to be.

***

“Baek.”

Baekhyun almost leapt out of skin when Kyungsoo’s familiar voice sounded behind him. Kyungsoo, the only one of his friends (apart from Iseul -- but she was already tall for a girl) that was shorter than him (Kyungsoo himself claimed he was taller, and he proceeded to strangle anyone who voiced their thoughts of it being otherwise), walked like some kind of cat. You could never hear his footsteps, nor know of his presence until he was behind you, ready to pounce. Well, maybe not ready to pounce -- that was Chanyeol. Kyungsoo straight up strangled people, or hit them, whatever he felt like doing.

“You scared me!” He gasped, putting a hand over his heart, and Kyungsoo gave him an unamused stare. Baekhyun shuddered inwardly -- Kyungsoo’s resting face was an impassive, yet somehow still deadly look. If the guy became a hitman when he grew up, Baekhyun thought that he and Chanyeol would tied for first on Kyungsoo’s hitlist.

Baekhyun gathered his books and glanced at Chanyeol. “What do you want?” He asked. “Aren’t you going home?”

“No,” Kyungsoo deadpanned. “Who’s Han Iseul?”

Baekhyun froze, and almost dropped one of notebooks along with his phone. “Who’s who?” He retorted instead, and Kyungsoo raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Some girl. I mean, she’s this person in my chem class and Choi made her tutor me. Though we’re not really doing that anymore. Why? Do you not know her? Or want to know her? Or what?”

“Chanyeol said she was standing in the middle -- quite literally -- of you guys’ argument. Some girl, right?” Kyungsoo was smiling a little -- an innocent, wide eyed smile that was, to Baekhyun, a danger signal. Though he decided that he’d rather turn the conversation to Chanyeol and his argument than for Kyungsoo to actually suspect something.

“I don’t need a reminder of that,” he mumbled into his backpack, hoping Iseul would drop out of the subject altogether. “You know how Chanyeol is. He’s mad at me. He thinks that I’m being stupid and childish when he’s the one who doesn’t understand anything. Just because he’s been my friend for so long, he thinks that he knows when he doesn’t.” Even as the words left Baekhyun’s mouth, he knew what he said wasn’t the exact truth. Chanyeol was right -- and that was mostly why he was mad at his friend. He didn’t exactly like it when others were right and he wasn’t, and something inside of him -- maybe it was his pride -- didn’t let him apologize to Chanyeol, no matter how much he wanted to. Kyungsoo, too, seemed to think the same thing.
 

“You really need to think your life choices over,” he stated a matter-of-factly. There was a hint of sarcasm in it, but Kyungsoo still looked serious. “Seriously, Baekhyun.”

“I know that,” Baekhyun mumbled to the ground. “I knew that a long time ago, Soo.”

***

Baekhyun woke up with an immense pain pounding his skull, and it felt like someone had taken a hammer and was whacking his head with it. His mouth felt dry -- painfully dry, and when he stuck out his tongue to wetten it, his tongue felt swollen and to big in his mouth. He wanted to speak, to say something, but the only t