It was way too early on a Sunday morning when the stillness of the small apartment was disrupted with a god awful noise ricocheting from wall to wall and echoing down from the front door all the way to the small bedroom where a lump on the mattress stirred and jumped up in shock; hair askew and thrown about in disarray, sticking up into any and all directions the long, mahogany colored strands could have been pulled. A series of unintelligible, incoherent grumbles croaks through a hoarse throat, coming out in harsh rasps as a rudely awakened Baekhyun shoved the once comfortable covers off her slight frame, slipping into the comfortably fluffy soft slippers by the foot of the bed before slouching her way towards the horrendous racket that was someone’s determined knuckles punching at the now poorly abused door.

          Not even her way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good neighbor’s smiling face could remove the annoyance from her face. And that was saying something.

           “What the hell do you want, Park Chanyeol?” comes the startling hiss of Baekhyun’s voice, laced with venom and all sorts of danger which the grinning male seemed to either not notice or blatantly ignore.

           “Good morning, beautiful!” was the boy’s only reply, the face-splitting grin not once leaving his frustratingly bright face and only darkening the frown that continued to exponentially grow on the girl’s still-too-tired-for-this- face (no one could deny she was blushing, though). Chanyeol, being the perpetually glowing ball of sunshine that he was, let himself into the apartment, not bothering to shed his footwear: his own set of horrendously fluffy bedroom slippers. Honestly, Baekhyun would have thought the guy who claimed to be a ‘manly-man who is also a gentleman’ would have a little more shame than that, but apparently, even highly masculine Park Chanyeol had a weakness for the furry – pink – slippers. Go figure.

           “It’s too early for this…” Baekhyun muttered under her breath glumly, watching that disheveled mop of coffee-colored locks lightly bounce with each step the boy took, right before he plopped onto her sufficiently soft sapphire sofa like a dying fish out of water; gangly limbs hanging off the armrests awkwardly as his toned arms clung and cuddled onto cushions. Baekhyun could only grumble obscene utterances under her breath as she slung her tired body onto the beanbag adjacent to the way-too-comfortable-than-he-should-be boy; his brightly socked feet dangling a mere three inches from her face—not like she had a different choice of seating, thank you very much. “What,” she sighed exhaustedly, “do you want, Chanyeol?”

           “Didn’t I tell you to call me ‘Oppa’?” he cooed dreamily, tossing about the pillow in his hands, flinging it in the air over and over in a way which made the girl uncomfortable because, well, Park Chanyeol was sort of clumsy… And she had a few fragile figurines and frames nearby.

           “And didn’t I tell you that is never going to happen because even if you’re three years older than me, you’re still stupid?” she retaliated instead, physically flinching when the boy’s grin wavered, hands stopping and nearly losing their grip on the pillow mid-throw. “Also,” she decided to add, refusing to allow the boy to think too much of her comment and thereby be offended, “Didn’t I tell you not to bother me so early in the mornings on weekends?”

           “Oh… It’s a weekend?” he gasped softly, setting the pillow down as he righted his position, sitting up and grinning sheepishly – shyly. “Sorry, my new class schedule is pretty messed up; I don’t even know what the weekends are anymore…”

           “This is a fascinating story and all, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun yawned, “But I am deathly tired and have the graveyard shift at work later, so if you have an actual point for barging into my home and disrupting my sleep – the sleep I’ve been needing since yesterday when I had three full lectures and then work – you better just get to it. If you know what’s good for you.”

           “Damn, you’re crabby…” Chanyeol mumbled, shaking his head in amusement. Nonetheless, the boy began stringing words together in his head again, deciding on how to say what it was he’d been wanting to say to her ever since he’d been awoken by a dream, three and a half hours ago (he hadn’t been able to go back to sleep since then, and he’d been – impatiently – waiting for the sun to rise so he could gallop across the hall at warp speed to ask his neighbor for help).

           “Alright, that’s it, I’m going back to sleep.”

          A leg shot out to stop the girl and before she could even take more than a step, she was once again forced down onto the bean bag; Chanyeol’s – heavy – thigh draped forcefully against her lap. “Wait!” he warned, “I’m getting ready to tell you.”

           “Tell me what?” Instead of sounding like a question, Baekhyun’s angered tone posed an exasperated exclamation; the words slithering out through clenched teeth as she shoved the boy’s leg off. Honestly, no matter how hot and attractive he was (and yes, despite her objections, she was attracted), she still could not put up with his shenanigans – especially on four hours of sleep, that just wasn’t fair at all.

           “I need your help,” came Chanyeol’s too-casual reply. He grinned once more, only this time, there was a hint of… embarrassment? Surely, ever-confident, ever-happy Park Chanyeol wasn’t acting… coy?

           “What is it?” Genuine curiosity overpowered the need for sleep for a second and Baekhyun sat up as straight as she could in her current seat, cocking an eyebrow at the boy who was, yes, definitely, blushing. What a rare sight—why in the name of all that’s good and holy is Park ing Chanyeol blushing?!

           “I like somebody,” he whispered, rather softly, so that she had to tilt her head sideways in confusion, wondering if she heard right. “Not someone I’d usually like,” he added, even more shyly, if that were even possible at this point. “And… I—well, don’t judge me, okay? I… like—I mean, I think I do, but—Okay, I…”

           “Oh God, Chanyeol, spit it out,” she snapped, impatient now. “What’s her name?”

           “Um… Kyungsoo.” Face brighter than a tomato, Chanyeol’s flustered cheeks disappeared behind calloused hands. “I like… a boy. I’m gay.”

          Baekhyun only sat still, rigid with shock.

          It was probably the first time in the history of forever that anybody could hear their own heart break into a million tiny pieces…

♦

          Of all the stupid things she had done over the course of her life, there was nothing much stupider than what Baekhyun found herself doing now. Seated on the slightly uncomfortable wooden bench, she chewed on her bottom lip nervously, staring at the bland cream-colored door of a dressing room, reading and re-reading the advertisement of some sort of modeling contest plastered on the surface with disinterest as the sounds of ruffling fabric, zipping zippers and faint grunts reverberated from the other side of the wooden door where Park Chanyeol struggled into the copious amounts of clothing which had previously been strewn across his confused arms.

           “Are you almost done yet?” she called out softly, voice cracking a bit as she shook her leg up and down (a nervous habit), seemingly boring holes into the wood.

           “Wait, this shirt is tricky, okay!” came Chanyeol’s caramel-like, chocolate-velvety deep voice. A few huffs of frustration and a beat of silence followed before the lock snapped in place and the door swung open. If she didn’t have better self-control, she could have sworn that a strangled sob would have crawled its way through her tightly sealed lips at the sight. Why? Well, because Park ing Chanyeol’s shirt was undone and holy those lean muscles underneath wonderfully milky skin and… She could almost literally feel a nosebleed.

           “Chanyeol…” Baekhyun managed to gasp out, feeling her insides quell in frustration as butterflies beat violently against her stomach and a herd of stampeding animals collapsed her fragile heart. “…what.”

           “Help me,” he whispered, bright-red in the face and eyes glimmering with some unknown emotion that, if she didn’t know any better, she would have mistaken for sly amusement. “Please,” he added softly—so softly that her insides melted to goo and she had to force her hands to cooperate and not shake in anticipation.

           The request itself, though very well-veiled in innocence, sent shivers up and down her spine as her fingers fumbled for the elusive buttons of the stupid pale-blue dress shirt which complimented Chanyeol’s flawlessly peachy skin in a mouthwateringly wonderful way, slipping every so often before finally clasping the shirt close and hiding the work of art underneath. Thank God for that, she huffed, there’s no need for fruitless ogling now—especially since Chanyeol admitted he was… into dudes.

           “So how does this look? Do you think Kyungsoo will fall for me?” Chanyeol wondered after a while; the awkward silence stifling and much more prominent due to the proximity of the two. Or lack thereof.

           Heart falling apart and turning to pulverized fragments, she could only nod stiffly.

♦

           “Tell me again why I have to go with you, Chanyeol?” Baekhyun whispered harshly as they entered another store with said boy clutching her hand tightly, lightheartedly grinning while also keeping a firm clasp on the bags already knotted along his other hand: the clothes he’d bought himself.

           “I need a date,” was Chanyeol’s only reply before he set said bags down in an obscure corner for later pick-up, maintaining his hold on the girl’s hand as he headed towards a hanging rack of rainbow hued silks and satins and chiffons, humming appreciatively before eyeing his partner with shrewd eyes. The intense stares he was giving made Baekhyun’s heart palpitate painfully and the heat from his hand on hers spread throughout her body, warming her insides considerably that the annoyance she had felt about being roped into different scenarios with Chanyeol slowly evaporated into nothingness as the bright-eyed, dark-haired boy pawed through hanger after hanger, pulling out numerous little pieces and handing it over to the girl.

           “Why me?” she wondered skeptically, both anticipating and dreading the answer he would give.

           “…You’re available,” he mumbled, shrugging nonchalantly before moving over to a different rack to pick out more dresses. Her eyes followed his every movement and she blushed, noticing that each dress was shortening and tightening exponentially. Was he trying to dress her up as a prosititute?

           “You don’t think I have a life? Chanyeol, I assure you, I have better things to do this weekend than accompany you to this party or whatever just so you can make googly-eyes at Kyungsoo. Besides, shouldn’t your date be a guy? I mean, since you’re—”

           “Come on,” he interrupted, tugging her along without allowing her to finish her sentence, “You’re trying those on for me.”

           The thought of dressing up for Chanyeol was simply too enticing to say no to.

♦

           “Hey beautiful,” Chanyeol called, pulling on her arm just as she pushed the front door of her apartment open. It had been a long, tiring day of shopping with her too-cute-for-his-own-damn-good neighbor, and Baekhyun was tired and yet, the stupid nickname he’d always used on her (because he knew it flustered her and he was cruel like that, dammit) still sprouted a new wave of energy through her body. Something about his voice and his simple touches just… ignited something within her.

            “Too bad he likes rainbows and unicorns…” she muttered begrudgingly, making sure that only she could hear her own words. A smile adorned Chanyeol’s face nonetheless and he blinked innocently, eyes shimmering like they always did. Damn it.

            “Thanks for today, neighbor,” he chuckled, pinching her slowly reddening cheeks. “I’ll pick you up at seven for our date on Friday, okay? You better look amazing, I’m counting on you.”

            “Yes, yes, Do Kyungsoo will eat his heart out with jealousy…” Baekhyun mumbled, rolling her eyes, “But…”

            “What?” Chanyeol prodded.

            “I might look so drop-dead gorgeous he falls in love with me,” she joked, “Are you even sure he’s… like you?”

            “Trust me,” Chanyeol laughed, eyes crinkling up adorably in that heart-stopping way. With that, he walked away, leaving Baekhyun a bundle of messed up nerve endings and fluttering butterflies.

♦

           Friday rolled around faster than expected and suddenly, Baekhyun found herself seated in front of the mirror, carefully filling out her bland features with makeup. The dress she had gotten a few days ago hung artfully not too far away, across her closet, and as the long streaks of black eyeliner dried along the rims of her eyes, she sighed deeply, wondering just how in the hell she got into this mess.

           “You’re only going to end up hurt in the end, Byun Baekhyun…” she muttered hopelessly to her pitiful reflection. “Why did you even agree to this, are you stupid? Obviously, even if you did your best tonight and convinced everyone else you are his date, his heart would still belong to someone else…”

           How do you even compete with his own love interest and win when all you ever were is his next door neighbor?

           Hastily throwing away the useless thoughts cluttering her mind, Baekhyun applied the finishing touches to her makeup, sighing every now and again as she ran carefully manicured fingers through the loose curls placed meticulously in a low, side ponytail splaying against a pale shoulder.

           Knowing that no matter how much she beat herself up over her easy willingness to Chanyeol’s requests, she would still end up saying yes to whatever the boy asked; it was her weakness. He just had to ing smile at her and she would probably throw herself off a cliff (and she wasn’t exaggerating).

           This time around, the boy was patient enough to ring the doorbell and although all she had to do now was slip into the off-white, one-shoulder dress, there was an air of suffocating panic that welled up her insides as she rushed to the door, blushing profusely and chomping down on the cherry-flavored lip tint smeared against her lower lip as the door slowly creaked open, revealing the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, living, breathing and blinking. Holying.

           “Hey,” he greeted, eyes glued onto his torso as he focused on tying his tie, completely oblivious to the twitching mess standing before him.

           “G-give me five minutes?” she pleaded, dashing off to her bedroom without awaiting his reply. Chanyeol stood there, scratching the back of his head, tie completely forgotten. He let himself in and shut the door behind him, taking off his shoes before sitting on the edge of the couch, too anxious to actually do much about anything. His mind was a mess of catastrophic proportions as he fiddled with the end of his still untied tie, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek in nervousness.

           Things had to go well tonight. He was counting on it. It had been too long.

           When she finally deemed herself presentable (after re-applying her lipstick), Chanyeol’s eyes glued on to her like a moth to a flame and with his eyebrow twitching, his mouth nearly fell to the floor in shock. “Whoa,” was the only verbal greeting he could intelligently utter out as Baekhyun made his way over to him, frowning slightly.

           “Do you not know how to tie a tie?” she wondered, ignoring the way her brain told her to stop right there and she shouldn’t be stepping over the imaginary line of personal space and placing herself in between his parted legs; hands gripping onto the silk gray tie. Simultaneously, their breaths seemed to hitch at the lack of distance between them both and Chanyeol effectively froze; eyes glued onto her hands as they swiftly knotted the troublesome strip of fabric.

            “Thanks,” was all he could say, voice sounding strangled for some unfathomable reason. Baekhyun’s hands remained on his chest, the excuse being that she was flattening the tie down, and from there, she could feel the rapid rhythm of his heart. For the first time that night, their eyes met and once again, she was instantly turned to gelatin and her heart leapt to because those ing eyes were staring straight into her poor soul.

           Before she could even remind himself that Park Chanyeol was, for all intents and purposes, gay, she found herself leaning in and then, there was definitely no distance left between them.

♦

           The car ride to the party could probably win an award with the level of awkward stiffness for the whole twenty-three minutes. Chanyeol refused to meet Baekhyun’s eyes after that godforsaken kiss and all she could think was she definitely deserved to die, right then. She knew he wasn’t into her and yet she had pushed it and now he would not even spare her a cursory glance. The deepest pits of her stomach were burning with bile. She just wanted this night to end.

           As they headed for the hall where this party – whatever it was for – was to be held, Baekhyun wondered how she could ever face her neighbor again, and it surprised her when an arm suddenly slipped onto her waist, pulling her inexplicably close. Chanyeol still didn’t look at her, though. It’s all for show, she reminded herself, breathing in deeply as the doors opened for them. A smile etched its way hesitantly onto her face, and she forced down the vomit threatening to spill out as they walked in. She did not expect what was waiting for her—for them.

          “Happy birthday, Chanyeol!” came the loud chorus of the people waiting in the hall, grins wide and stretching from ear to ear as the apparent birthday boy stood there with a saccharine smile making its way onto his glorious face; previous preoccupation obviously set aside. A hot blush crept onto Baekhyun’s face as she realized what was happening: it was Chanyeol’s birthday and the bastard didn’t even ing tell her! White-hot tongues of fire leapt at her heart then as confusion clouded her entire being while Chanyeol pulled her into the throng of partygoers offering heartfelt greetings and thanks, all the while refusing to meet her eyes. She was really going crazy now.

           “Yeol!” A voice called out, and out of nowhere, a slicked-up mane of dark hair rose from above the rest and disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later as a cherubic-faced, wide-eyed boy sauntered over, grinning widely so that his lips formed a heart shape. She wondered who this was, but at the same time, a wave of unease crawled like ice across her skin. There was something about the way Chanyeol was looking at him that made her feel…wary.

           Chanyeol’s free hand – the one not maintaining a vise-like grip on her hip – reached out to rub the back of his neck in nervousness, and a somewhat awkward grin appeared on his face. Is this Do Kyungsoo? Her stomach dropped to the floor. “You little rascal!” the heart-smile boy chuckled, pulling the much taller boy into his arms and locking him in a headlock while Chanyeol continued to hold onto Baekhyun’s waist with a little too much pressure to be normal.

           “Soo!” Chanyeol protested, feeling fingers tussling up his perfectly styled hair (either way, he already had -hair-looking locks, so it didn’t really make much of a difference to anyone but himself).

           “Hi, I’m Kyungsoo,” the owl-eyed male grinned, making that pit of despair she was already beginning to crawl into widen considerably. She was ready to throw herself off a cliff now. “You must be The Byun Baekhyun our little princess Chanyeol can’t stop jibber-jabbering about—it’s nice to finally meet you!”

           “Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol yelled harshly, face contorting into one of pain as it burned brighter than a cherry red tomato. Kyungsoo’s eyes widen considerably at the harsh sound of his voice and realization seemed to dawn on him. Baekhyun can’t help but feel bitter, though; at least he ing knew what was going on! She was just… confused.

           “Oh, God, Park Chanyeol! There are turtles who’ve run ten marathons moving faster than you are!” Kyungsoo scolded, rolling his eyes very… effeminately.

           “Soo, shut up,” Chanyeol pleaded, gritting his teeth.

           “Listen,” Kyungsoo called, pulling the two apart and placing his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. Her own eyes exponentially grew to the size of two full moons in shock. Chanyeol, being the party boy, was immediately swarmed and pulled away from the nightmarish scene that was unfolding. “Forgive our Chanyeol, he’s always been really shy when it comes to this stuff—don’t let those damned -god good looks fool you. He may look like the ultimate beast in the sack – I’m not really sure about that – but the boy’s about as coy as a freaking thirteen year old girl. Promise you won’t hurt him, okay?”

            “…what?” was the only thing she could think to say. Besides, hearing Kyungsoo, Chanyeol’s supposed love interest, call him ‘our Chanyeol’ just really made her hurt everyingwhere.

           “Oh God, you’re just as slow as he is!” Kyungsoo wailed, flailing his free arm over exaggeratedly. “Chanyeol—Park Chanyeol, he likes you. Dammit, I think he more than likes you! I mean, come on, couldn’t you tell? That boy is about as subtle as North Korea’s nuclear bombs! Hell, he even brought you to his 24^st birthday party as his date!”

            “To make you jealous,” she informed, bitterly. Kyungsoo spluttered.

           “Ohmygod, please tell me he did not do what I think he did!” Kyungsoo wailed, “I am going to kill that Oh Sehun!”

           “Hey, you get away, right now!” A very, very irritated-looking Park Chanyeol suddenly stood behind the two, nostrils flaring at Kyungsoo while the latter just laughed maniacally, removing his hand and backing away slowly, mumbling something about “having a little talk with our precious Sehunnie” and “little needs to pay for dragging me into this god awful cluster”.

           The two, with the parting of the rather sassy Do Kyungsoo, stood there in awkward silence, staring at each other; Chanyeol doing an impeccable immitation of a cherry while Baekhyun only blinked in the confusion she felt. All she could hear replaying in her head was Chanyeol likes you.

           He then sighed heavily, pulling the girl into his arms as he led her to the dance floor, slipping her hands onto his shoulders as he grinned down at her with the innocence of a puppy. “I’m not gay,” he whispered softly, too shamefaced to actually go an octave higher.

           Baekhyun remained silent, unsure of where to go from there. “I’m not gay,” he repeated solemnly, pulling her inexplicably closer so their bodies collided against one another. “I… don’t have feelings for Kyungsoo. He’s actually pretty annoying, as you probably figured out. It was… well, Sehun – one of my friends – suggested the ploy. I kind of just went along with it. Stupid, I know.

“I don’t really know what to say right now, Baek. I guess I never really thought what I was doing, I just sort of… did it. I, uh—I’m really not gay. God, how could I be gay? I mean, that’s just plain weird! Not that I have anything against gays, I know gay people and… Kyungsoo’s gay and well, he’s annoying as hell, but I’m fine with gays in general. The thing is, I’m not… well, I—I just don’t like .” Chanyeol continued to ramble on, but Baekhyun was too stunned to say anything to stop him from further embarrassing himself. “I like girls, definitely girls. Or… girl. Because I wasn’t lying. I do like someone; it’s just not Kyungsoo…

“I’m just… not really good with words? I don’t know, I at this sort of stuff. I hate having to put my heart out there, but here we go, I guess? I like you, Baekhyun. I mean, I really like you—more than anyone ever. You’re just… beautiful – and you don’t make fun of me for being me. And also, you can’t cook to save your life but that’s okay because it’s so gosh darn cute when you get all frustrated and I have to take over and— Anyway! I…uh, I’ve liked you for like the longest time ever. Since you moved in, I think? I don’t know, I just kind of woke up one day and the image in my head was you smiling at me. It just kind of developed from there.

“I think I could go on and on, but I think you get it?” Chanyeol chuckled nervously. “Do you… Do you perhaps feel the same way? I mean, you kissed me earlier and… well, I don’t think people just go kissing people like that, right? You… like me too, right? Or am I just assuming something? What do you think?”

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun finally called out, slowly falling out of her befuddled state to stare at the rapidly blinking boy in front of her. She flicked his forehead, making the boy pout considerably. “You’re stupid.”

“I—“ Whatever words he’d ever want to say was drowned out completely by the lips pressing against his own.

Hearts fluttered, stomachs twisted and love bloomed that glorious night, when Park Chanyeol turned 24. And, somewhere not too far off, a distinct, “Hallelujah, Park Chanyeol finally developed balls!” could be heard; voice eerily akin to Do Kyungsoo’s.

lol if you guys notice, the writing style is a bit different bc i wrote this a while ago when i was experimenting with different styles so yea hahah
hope it wasn't too y, tho? x)

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