A/N: Late update, but it’s all good. Oddly, I’ve had the party scene in ch 7 and the beginning of 8 in my head since I started writing this fic. Of course, there have been MANY variations over the years. I think it works well enough. Enjoy!

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The sun rays shining through the blinds irritatingly hit Baekhyun’s face making him whine and roll over. His head pounded like a drum, and his mind was foggy as he lay there on his side. He didn’t remember drinking that much at the party to warrant such a hangover. In all honesty, Baekhyun couldn’t remember much of anything.

Something about the bed felt off. It most certainly wasn’t his bed. And from the feeling of the sheets and blankets, Baekhyun could tell he wasn’t in his room. Yet, there was something familiar about the scent. With a yawn, he willed his eyes to slowly flutter open until he could focus enough to see where he was. Panic began when the unfamiliar room wouldn’t stop spinning.

He tried to shift out of the sheets and get up only to fall on the hardwood floor. The door opened, and a tall figure entered the room.

“You…” Baekhyun tried to focus, “What did you do to me?” the morning grogginess still in his voice.

“Lie back down. You aren’t in any condition to be getting out of bed.”

“Chanyeol, I asked what you did to me!”

“Nothing!” He frustratingly tried to grab Baekhyun by the forearm to help him back in the bed, only for his hands to be shoved away.

“Then why am I here in your bed?! I want to go home!”

“Just stop being a brat and lay down.”

“Why? So you can try to do things to me while I’m sleeping? No thanks, I don’t want you- ouch!” The boy tried to fight but lost his footing when he was lightly pushed back into the bed.

“Stay there.” Chanyeol pointed down at the boy, “You need to rest more until you can get up without falling.”

The door opened again, this time to reveal a timid Kyungsoo at the door.

“Did he wake up?”

“Yeah, but he’s not ready to go any-“

“Kyungsoo! Oh my God! Thank God you are here! I need you to take me back home. This creep is trying to date me.”

Kyungsoo gave a small smile and shook his head. “Actually, Chanyeol was the one who saved you.”

“W-what do you mean? Don’t you know what he is capable of? I don’t know what he told you, but-“ Chanyeol rubbed his head with a grown.

“Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo sat down on the edge of the bed.

“I’ll go get him some aspirin and water.” The tall boy left the room, allowing the two friends alone time to talk about what happened. Once the door was closed, Kyungsoo continued,

“You need to rest. I’m keeping an eye on him to make sure he keeps his hands to himself. So far, he hasn’t done anything but protected you from getting hurt and keeping you safe in his room. It’s not the ideal situation, but for now, it’s where you need to be.”

“What happened?” Baekhyun lay back down, and Kyungsoo scooted in to sit closer to his side.

“I think some kid who crashed the party put something in your drink. He was trying to carry you off to one of the rooms, and Chanyeol… well he intervened.”

“Intervened how?”

“Let’s just say that the party ended early because an ambulance had to be called for the other guy.”

Baekhyun had to let that sink in. Was he happy that some random guy tried to date him? No. Was he glad that Chanyeol beat the said guy to a pulp and put him in the hospital? Maybe not. It was complicated. Of course, fighting someone to the point of hospitalization is terrible! But he didn’t expect much else from the barbaric jerk. However, considering what the random party crasher would have done to him had Chanyeol not saved him… He probably deserved it. Should he feel grateful? To an like Chanyeol? He didn’t want to. Nor was he going to be. It’s not like he asked to be helped in the first place. Plus, he was only doing it because he saw Baekhyun as his property, right? So why should he be thankful to that bastard?

He shut his eye, trying not to show how livid he was. The door opened again with Chanyeol holding a glass of water, some snacks, and some pills. “I have something I need to do. You two can stay here as long as you need. I had a driver pick your car up from Taeyong’s house, so you’re not a prisoner. Keys are on the desk next to the door.

Kyungsoo gave him a small ‘thank you’ as he left the room once again.

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun chewed and swallowed his food, “I need you to take me home.”

“I don’t even have my license yet.”

“I can’t be here.”

Behind furrowed brows, Kyungsoo was unsure what to do. On the one hand, he didn’t want to let his friend down, but on the other, he knew that he wasn’t confident with driving.

“I’m not sure if I can.”

“You got this. It’s not that hard. You have a permit, right?” There was a moment of hesitation, “Please, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun put his hand on the other boy’s forearm, and he knew he couldn’t say no.

“Okay.” It wasn’t ideal, and he was terrified deep down of driving, but he wanted to make sure Baekhyun got home safely.

He helped the weakened male out of bed, grabbed their things, and headed out.

Kyungsoo sat at the edge of his seat, despite it being pulled all the way forward. On the plus side, he knew the area, and it wasn’t too far from their houses. As far as help went, all he got from the Baekhyun was a jacket across his face to block the sun from his eyes. The silence was thick, or maybe the singer was just too focused on the road to pay attention. When Baekhyun spoke up, even though it wasn’t loud, he nearly jumped out of his seat.

“I need to know what happened last night. I only remember going inside, grabbing a drink, and then… I think we hung out with someone? Mark, maybe?

“Yeah, we hung out with him and a group of others. Mark, Taeyong Jongin, umm, I think someone you called Ten? Taemin and… umm, Lucas? I don’t know their names very well, but I think that was all of them.” He found it difficult to talk and drive at the same time.

“Okay, then what happened?” Kyungsoo recalled to him when Chanyeol tried to get Baekhyun to come over to him, “Pfff what a jerk. He would do something like that. I can’t believe him. Why on God’s good earth would I want to spend more time with him than I have to? Get real.”

“No idea. Well, you went off to dance with some other people, so I went off-“ He stopped himself abruptly.

“You went off where?” Baekhyun threw the jacket off of his face and looked up from the seat that laid back. “Why would you leave?”

“The bathroom.” It was a fib, and he couldn’t stop it from coming out of his mouth.

“Okay, and then what happened.”

“Ummm…” Crap, now he was in a pickle. What could he say to cover up his tracks?

“I went to the backyard.”

“Alone?”

“No.”

The passenger seat shot up back into place and nearly gave Kyungsoo a heart attack. Baekhyun was now highly invested. “Wait… did you find your crush?” The other boy bit down on both of his lips, scared his words would betray him. Instead, he bashfully nodded.

“NO WAY! How did it go?!”

“I’m trying to drive.”

“Then pull over!”

“I… don’t want to talk about it.”

“I do! Did something bad happen? Was it embarrassing? Come on, Kyung, you can tell me! I won’t tell Junnie or anyone.”

Kyungsoo made an abrupt stop at the stop sign. It was early in the morning, and no cars were around. He planted them there for a moment before he continued to speak, “It wasn’t like that. We-“ He took a deep breath before letting out all his words at once, “wekindakissedonthetrampolineandheldhands”

“Oh. My. God. You little !” Baekhyun joked, “How could this happen, and I wasn’t even there to witness it!? Who is she? Do I know her?”

“NO!” of course, he knew Him.

“Damn. I can’t believe I missed that over dancing with a potential . Ugh.” He sat his seat back again and threw the garment over his face again. “We can talk more about that later. Don’t think you’re off the hook. But I need to know what else happened.”

“We heard people screaming inside, so we went in, and there was some boy, Hongbin or something like that, lying on the floor out cold… Chanyeol had you in his arms. I asked Taeyong what happened, and apparently, the kid didn’t even go to our school. He crashed the party with his friends. Chanyeol demanded that he take you back to his hangout near the school to keep you safe until you woke up.

“Taeyong wanted Jongin to go with you two, but of course, I told him that I would stay with you since we did go to the party together. Chanyeol put you in his bed and slept on the couch. I slept in the spare bedroom. I called my mom to tell her that I was busy playing games at your place and begged her to stay the night. Luckily she agreed otherwise… I wouldn’t be driving us home now.” He continued driving once all the words were finally out.

“Thanks, Kyung.”

He looked back at the other boy who lay there still. Baekhyun could have been mistaken for being asleep had he not said anything.

“It’s nothing.”

They parked at Baekhyun’s house, enjoying a quiet rest of their afternoon, sleeping off the night’s long event from the safety of his house. Kyungsoo was glad to be back but knew he would soon be due for an interrogation.

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Junmyeon was staring at his book but couldn’t make a word out. He could have sworn he read the same sentence at least fifteen times over. Nothing was making sense, and he wasn’t sure if it was him or the book. He decided to take a break and look at his phone. No texts, no missed calls, no sign of Lay since two nights ago. It was irking him. He wanted to get to the bottom of this whole mess.

Why a date of all things? Why had he been so candid about his feelings? Why was he not harassing him like normal? Was this seriously over? Will he no longer message him?

Junmyeon pulled down the notification bar on his phone to see nothing there. He didn’t know why but it irked him to the core. More resolution was needed than just being told that a date would suddenly solve everyth