Byun Baekhyun has always been on the shorter side. Height wise obviously.

“Well your intelligence is also not mind-blowing”, his best friend Chanyeol would throw in.

 He would give him a loving punch and a witty “My makes up for it”.

Okay, so maybe Chanyeol was right and his grades also could use a little of the time he uses to watch Youtube tutorials on how to make the perfect eyeliner wing, but who cares anyway when you have more important things to stress about. Like who would tell Joonmyeon that his bowl cut looks hideous and is a total disgrace for their gang. Baekhyun refused to call them clique, because that was too mainstream for him. Now one could think that Byun Baekhyun is a hipster who spends his time at cafés that only the cool kids know about and listens to indie music all day. But no, Byun Baekhyun is too prestige for that.

 “I’m surprised you even have such words in your vocabular”. Chanyeol got a smile in return and Baekhyun’s slender middle finger.

No Byun Baekhyun is way more than that. He’s a freshman in university, whose height and grades are a bit lacking, but who almost mastered the art of the perfect eyeliner, and whose sassy attitude and puppy face could make anyone fall in love.

“That’s why Jongdae rejected you back in high school, right?”

Unfortunately the giant decided not to wear a necklace today because otherwise Baekhyun would have choked him to death with it.

“Yeah and now he’s in a relationship with Minseok hyung. Who’s the loser now?” Baekhyun responds while laughing into his decaffeinated coffee.

“You. You are the loser. Minseok and Jongdae are the happiest people someone could imagine”

Baekhyun always wondered why he still was in contact with someone like Chanyeol, but he remembers the embarrassing pictures of him, the first time he got drunk in high school and he knows Chanyeol would use them to blackmail him. So he tries to stay calm and only kick him softly against his shinbone.

“You seriously need a boyfriend; I don’t need any more bruises on my legs. They are really uny”

It was a big mystery to Baekhyun how anyone could find Park Chanyeol, the giant, whose ears were almost bigger than Baekhyun’s head, attractive. But in their gang, he was the one who scored the most with whoever he was interested in. Joonmyeon then argued that it was unfair, because Chanyeol had a bigger spectrum to look at, because he was not solely gay. Sehun took it upon himself to explain that Joonmyeon might not be as much of a big shot as he thinks he is. To no one’s surprise they ended up dating. Baekhyun didn’t understand how Sehun could tolerate this grotesque bowl cut, but that is another story.

“I’m really surprised about your vocabulary today”

Chanyeol earned himself a bit of decaffeinated coffee on his shirt for that. The tower’s complaints go to deaf ears as an unfamiliar figure enters the café. Okay, so maybe Baekhyun lied about the not chilling at cafés only the cool kids know about thing, but Starbucks always gets his name wrong. He doesn’t want to be called Betty for two months again.

The man walks straight up to the counter and Baekhyun notices the tangled headphones around his neck. Baekhyun somehow really wants to untangle them. The Korean can’t really make up what the man orders, because Chanyeol’s noisy voice is still complaining about the coffee on his shirt. When the order is given to the customer and he turns around, Baekhyun can’t help but stare.

“You’re staring”

Thanks Mr. Obvious.  He wants to pour the rest of the coffee on Chanyeol’s shirt also but is distracted by the person with the tangled headphones, who doesn’t know where to sit, since everything is full of hipsters (expect for Baekhyun obviously). He is surprised to find the male walking towards their table. It’s not for the reason that they sit on the only table with a free chair, Baekhyun tells himself, but because that guy can also feel their special connection. Also he wants Baekhyun to untangle his headphones. Chanyeol in later talks punches him for that.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” the man asks shyly in what seems to be accented Korean and looks into Baekhyun’s eyes. The Korean wants to squeak but remembers he needs to chill, before he stares intensely into the eyes of the standing man and asks:

“It depends...do you know the password?”

At that, something in the foreigner’s eyes seems to change; they appear more daring.

“To what? Your or the table?”

Needless to say Chanyeol immediately adores Yixing to no ends, as the Chinese, sits down at what soon turned to their gang table.

“Both are probably not hard to find out”, the boy says and smiles at Baekhyun. And as if the Gods didn’t already play with his heart, a freaking dimple needed to appear! In what shameful world do we live?

Yixing introduced himself, as a student from their university, who came from China to study music. Baekhyun thinks Yixing fits just fine into this café. Nevertheless it’s weird that Baekhyun didn’t see him around before. He normally has a great eye for good asses. When Baekhyun doesn’t say much during their first encounter, he knows he’s ed. Chanyeol knows it too.

“You’re so into him”

The first fifteen times Chanyeol tells him that, he straight out denies it, but at some point he just stops bothering, because they both know he has a thing for witty comebacks. Especially if they aren’t his own. Especially if those witty comebacks come with dimples and a soft voice that makes Baekhyun’s hair stand up and builds a warm feeling in his stomach.

It becomes a routine that they meet at this table almost every day and Yixing just clicks right with everyone in their gang. But during all their talks the twinkle in Yixing’s eyes seems directed at him. Baekhyun is especially mesmerized when Yixing talks about composing. The way his eyes reflect the light and the way his lips curve up and the dimple that has just the right depth, make him feel things. Chanyeol is not the only one who notices the glances Baekhyun gives their new friend. Joonmyeon soon talks to him about it. After finally cutting his hair, Baekhyun can look at him again without the need to puke and even though he denies his affection for the Chinese, Joonmyeon gives him a knowing look.

One day he finds himself all alone with Yixing and he immediately knows whose plan this was. He makes sure that Chanyeol won’t find his Xbox games the next three weeks. Yixing’s eyes seem shy like the first time he made eye contact with Baekhyun. The Korean sips at his decaffeinated coffee and the Chinese on his hot chocolate while both sit in silence. Yixing isn’t big on bitter things; he explained at their third gang meeting, not that Baekhyun keeps record.

“So what is the password?” Yixing asks and fumbles with his cup. Baekhyun turns red at that memory and he’s not sure what exactly the other means.

“For my or the table?”

Yixing chuckles at that and the daring look in his eyes is back. Also his dimple, that damn dimple.

“Up to you what you want to tell me”

The twinkle in Yixing’s eyes is back and this time Baekhyun is sure it’s directed at him. Baekhyun doesn’t want to make it easy for Yixing, because he’s not sure of the other’s intentions.

“I choose neither”

Yixing’s smile falters a little but is soon back when he fumbles his phone out of his pocket, the tangled earphones also fall out, but Yixing puts them back in. The Chinese searches for something before shoving the phone in Baekhyun’s direction.

“He did not!”

“Oh he did”

Baekhyun made sure Chanyeol would not find his Xbox games for 6 months. He also made sure to post those pictures of Chanyeol with his pet ferrets all over the internet. Sadly it turned out that Chanyeol was actually proud of those pictures. In comparison to Baekhyun who was shocked to find out that Yixing was in possess of his most embarrassing memory.

“I will post them if you don’t tell me”

This was the first time Baekhyun noticed that Yixing was actually more on the stubborn side. But Baekhyun knew just fine how to handle such people. Yixing’s dimple was staring at him again and the soft breathing of the Chinese calmed him down a little.

“You seem really desperate for my , huh?”

“Well you stared me down when I just wanted to buy coffee”

“Touché”

“Chanyeol warned me that you would use vocabulary you don’t even know the meaning of”

Chanyeol wouldn’t see his games for a year. Baekhyun’s anger was gone, a second later, when Yixing handed him his headphones.

“Chanyeol told me you would like to untangle them for me”

Yixing smiled and sipped at his coffee while the Korean stared at the headphones in his hand. Maybe Chanyeol would get his games back after 9 months. While Baekhyun was slowly untangling Yixing’s headphones the other kept bothering with questions about the password. And they told Baekhyun he was the needy one. When he finally untangled them, Yixing took them with a grateful smile that made flowers grow in his stomach. But there was this familiar twinkle in the Chinese eyes again.

“Come on Betty, tell me”

With that Baekhyun was sure, Chanyeol would never see his games again and Yixing would never get the password. Well, he wasn’t so sure about that second one.