Chanyeol's life used to be simple. Before Baekhyn, at least.

He went to class, ate instant ramyun for all four meals of the day, studied until his eyes nearly fell out, and low key loved Oh Sehun from across the campus—or the classroom, or the library, or the cafe. His schedule was full and there was no time in it for meeting people or making friends, which is why he was a junior but had never said a single word to his crush of three years. When Chanyeol was paired with Baekhyun for a group project, though, all of that changed.

"Come on, Yeol," Baekhyun challenged one afternoon when they'd already been working for a good three hours and had at least that many more to go before they finished. "How do you have fun if you don't have friends?"

For Chanyeol, fun was reading manhwa on weekends and balancing chemical equations during the week. Fun had nothing to do with other human beings, and the only way he even rationalized taking the time to continue guitar was that it would be a waste of an investment to stop playing now. That mindset absolutely appalled Baekhyun, who was a social butterfly with more friends than even a science and math genius like Chanyeol could count. Chanyeol's partner even knew about Sehun, and guaranteed that if Chanyeol started to hang with Baekhyun, he'd be hanging with his crush, too.

It was that promise which got Chanyeol out of his room on Saturday night to attend a small gathering in Baekhyun and Kyungsoo's apartment. There weren't enough people for it to be a party, so Baekhyun's friend Kai told Chanyeol when he walked in at least, but they'd still have fun, Kai was sure.

Fun. That seemed to be the word on everyone's lips; the buzzword of the night, so to speak. Baekhyun said it when he welcomed Chanyeol with a jovial "Hello, my chingu! Let's have some fun tonight!" Kyungsoo used it in his first time greeting, whispering "Oo, fresh meat. How fun!" under his breath before introducing himself to Chanyeol with a bow and a polite "Hello." Even the two quieter ones who sat next to each other yet with avoidant gazes on the couch emitted a monotone pair of "Fun" when Baekhyun dragged Chanyeol around the room to get acquainted.

The only person who didn't mention having fun in any form was also the only person Chanyeol had yet to formally meet: Oh Sehun. They'd exchanged courteous nods when Chanyeol had stumbled awkwardly through Baekhyun and Kyungsoo's front hallway, but had no chance to actually speak before the festivities began.

First there was beer; lots of it. In all his years as a college student, Chanyeol hadn't ever gone out partying because he hadn't had anyone to do that with, and as such he hadn't realized what he'd been missing until now.

"Oh, yeah?" One of the quieter ones teased—Suho, Chanyeol thought that one's name was—"Just wait until tomorrow morning, then we'll talk."

Chanyeol, though, had no comparative context for a hangover, and once a little tipsy he felt much more comfortable around all these new people than he had when he first arrived.

"I love making friends!" He crowed in raucous excitement, recognizing how embarrassed he'd be by his actions if sober, but at the same time rebelling in the fact that he wasn't sober so he didn't have to care.

Baekhyun laughed and Tao's high pitched giggle harmonized with his friend's amusement while Chanyeol noted with interest that Suho blushed brightly as soon as Tao began to laugh.

"In that case," Kyungsoo declared, riding the hype of Chanyeol's jubilant words to move the night along, "how do you feel about making out with friends?" He grinned devilishly and Chanyeol could see why Baekhyun sometimes referred to his flat mate as "Satan Soo" whenever he and Chanyeol got together for their project.

"Love it!" That's how tipsy Chanyeol felt too, but it was actually Kai who agreed to Kyungsoo's plan first, even before a still amused Baekhyun commanded "Truth or dare!"

Kai shrugged but never lost his grin, and shouted "Fun!" before taking another swig of his beer. There was that word again, yet without it Chanyeol was positive he'd never have agreed to play. Studious and boring Chanyeol was a cautious pre-med student, but tonight's Chanyeol was going to have a little careless fun, partly because he could and partly because Sehun was so effortlessly cool that Chanyeol wanted to show how much he, too, could be a badass.

Sehun, throughout all of this, had complained that Koreans are supposed to drink soju, not beer, but had happily accepted a bottle when Baekhyun smacked the back of their maknae's head and pointed out plainly, "Soju's expensive; beer is not." Chanyeol, who admittedly admired everything about his crush anyway, thought it unbelievably awesome and grown up that Sehun had alcohol quality standards, and had only taken a beer of his own once he saw Sehun take a sip. Likewise, excited about the opportunity to experience something new in the form of average university student drinking games as he was, Chanyeol did not make the decision to play until Sehun agreed first.

"You always want to play that," he muttered petulantly; Chanyeol thought it was adorable but Baekhyun repeatedly called Sehun a brat until he said "Fine, I'll do it!"

Almost immediately after, Chanyeol had bounced up and down in his spot on the floor between Kai and Baekhyun, nearly shouting in his eagerness to express "Me too! me too!"

"Well it looks like he's in," Kyungsoo observed drily with a smirk. That made Tao giggle again, and the infectious timbre of his laughter had everyone going such that it took another few minutes to calm the group down and get them focused again.

"Okay," Baekhyun began, suddenly looking fiercely determined in a way that Chanyeol was surprised to find really cute actually. "I'll start." He turned to Chanyeol, confident that the only way to truly experience this part of college life was to be fully and immediately immersed, but Chanyeol cut his project partner off before Baekhyjn could say another word.

"Wait, wait," he sounded suddenly panicked. "Aren't there supposed to be rules?" Chanyeol had seen enough teen movies and dramas to know about the rules.

Baekhyun sighed but exchanged a long look with Kyungsoo who just shrugged. "Ugh," Baekhyun groaned finally, "you take all the fun out of everything." Sober Chanyeol would have been offended, but heading-toward-drunk Chanyeol couldn't deny that most of the time Baekhyun's words were true.

"Fine," Baekhyun continued with a huff when his words made no impact and only got him a blank look from Chanyeol, "you want rules? Here they are: No passes."

"No take backs," Tao added.

Kai piped up too. "No repeats."

Suho said nothing, as did Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol was surprised when Sehun made his own contribution with "And no chickening out."

Chanyeol sarcastically saluted each of the ones who'd offered a truth or dare rule, winking when he got to Sehun because even if he broke all the others Chanyeol knew he would never, ever break Sehun's.

"Yessir," he deadpanned, for good measure and for a laugh, which he got from Tao, Baekhyun, and Suho, but only managed a little where Kai, Kyungsoo, and Sehun were concerned.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes but finally took the opportunity he'd lost before and opened their game with a toast to no one and a cheeky, "So, Chanyeol-ah, truth or dare?"