pairing: BaekLay
length: 1084 words

“Hey, Baek, remember that pact we made when we were twenty-one?”

Baekhyun blearily opened his eyes and looked up at Yixing before nodding to confirm. “What about it?” he asked with a yawn.

There was a slight pause before the Chinese male sheepishly answered, “You turned thirty last week. Time is up.”

With that, Baekhyun shot up like an arrow and grabbed his head, his fingers digging messily into his soft brown locks. “Oh god, I completely forgot! Has it really been nine years since we were sad, single losers in college?”

“Er, that might be a little harsh—”

“But it’s true,” Baekhyun pointed out matter-of-factly. “The whole reason we even started the pact was because we were so desperate to find love. To be in a relationship like everyone else was.”

Yixing wilted a bit at his best friend’s words. “Yeah… When I got the invitation to Lu Han’s wedding this summer, it reminded me that I’m still…still like this…” He mindlessly gestured around his tiny one-room apartment that the two friends were currently sprawled around. “I thought things would change after graduation, but it only got harder to meet people and connect with them. How am I supposed to have any energy to entertain someone when I’m working sixty hours a week?”

“Having more free time isn’t that much better either,” Baekhyun said while sighing loudly. “Dating apps are so stupid. Ninety percent of the time, all I get are creeps messaging me and the few decent people that I match with end up being so boring. The ones you wanna be with aren’t even on dating apps in the first place because they’re already taken, since everyone wants to be with them.”

Yixing looked down at his hands, spreading out his fingers in front of him. “I wonder what’s wrong with us. We both make a decent amount of money with enough savings to start a family by now. We’re both pretty nice, right?”

“Anyone who can patiently deal with your head of management on a regular basis is a saint in my book,” Baekhyun declared with a grin. “I don’t know how you do it, Yixing. Just being around him for one evening at that company party you invited me to was enough to drive me insane.”

“Maybe you should go into acting,” the Chinese male joked. “Everyone in my department asked me how you managed to stay so charming, even though he was being such a jerk.”

“Oh, I’ve had way too much practice from dealing with all of the creeps on dating apps,” Baekhyun said with a nonchalant shrug. “Anyway, back to what we were saying before, I don’t think we’re lacking in the personality department. If we were, we wouldn’t have stayed best friends for so long.”

“True,” Yixing agreed with a nod. He then grimaced while asking, “We’re not ugly, are we?”

“Are you kidding? You, Zhang Yixing, ugly?” Baekhyun took out his phone and hastily unlocked it in order to scroll through his gallery, which was filled with photos of his best friend. “You’ve got the nicest smile with that dimple that everyone falls over themselves to see. And your eyes are so warm and inviting whenever you make eye contact. It’s like getting lost in a cup of hot chocolate.” He then grinned devilishly as he reached over to poke Yixing’s stomach. “And you’ve got the hottest body in town. No one has washboard abs like yours. I basically have to starve myself to look the same way you do.”

“You don’t need abs to look good,” the Chinese male protested. “Your body is perfect the way it is. Your smile also lights up every single room you’re in, further proving how vibrant you are as a person which means bonus points for personality. Not to mention, you’ve got the prettiest hands I’ve ever seen in my life. I still don’t know why you didn’t try becoming a hand model on the side,” Yixing said, shaking his head while wearing a lopsided smile. “The world has been deprived of seeing billboards with your hands on them.”

Baekhyun laughed and gently shoved his best friend to the side. “Why does it sound like we’re attracted to each other?”

“Maybe we are,” Yixing mused as he lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling. “At least enough to make a pact to be together if we were both sad, single people by the time we turned thirty.”

Baekhyun lay down next to him and said, “It’s honestly not a bad idea, now that I really think about it.” He then reached out and placed his left hand over Yixing’s right hand. “We already spend so much time together. And we can think of the past fifteen years we’ve known each other as our preliminary dating phase. By now, we know each other inside and out. It shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”

“I mean, are we really going to find anyone who’s better at this point?” the Chinese male quipped as he interlaced their fingers together and shifted so that he was facing Baekhyun. “We’re both so inexperienced when it comes to relationships and love. Who’s going to bother trying to teach us anything? The two of us might as well learn it all together while we’re still sort of young.”

Baekhyun scooted closer before turning on his side, leaving barely a foot of distance between the two best friends. “Yeah, we’re not getting any younger. Who knows if this is our last chance at something…real?”

Yixing chuckled lightly. “It probably isn’t. We’re honestly just being overdramatic.” His tone then sobered slightly as he continued, “Are you sure about this, Baek? We don’t have to do this. After all, it’s just a silly promise we made when we were young.

“A silly promise is still a promise. Besides, isn’t that the dream? Getting to call your best friend your significant other?” Baekhyun smiled softly as he drew even closer to the Chinese male, close enough to touch foreheads.

“Yeah, that does sound nice,” Yixing replied with a serene smile of his own. “I’m starting to wish that I had brought this up sooner. Think of how much time we’ve lost.”

“Well, better late than never,” the Korean male laughed as they wrapped their arms around each other. “And there’s no time like the present. Wanna watch a movie and cuddle?”

Yixing hummed happily and nodded.

Maybe it was always meant to be this way.

♈♈♈

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! It’s my fifth anniversary of being an EXO-L, so I’ve returned with another triple update! Apologies again for not updating sooner and thank you so much for being patient! My life has been really busy these past few months, especially in January. For some reason, the holiday season is always really busy for me. OTL I have some other writing commitments that I've pushed to the side that I need to pick back up again these new few weeks. But I will have more updates written during this time to be posted by EXO's ninth anniversary at the very least. So please anticipate that!

Anyway, I can't believe it's been half a decade since I first saw EXO perform live and joined the fandom. And so much has happened over the past five years. I've seen them live at three group concerts. I've picked up some of the members from work. I've been to several solo concerts, both in-person and online, and musicals. I've been to a fan sign (still one of the BEST days of my life) and written letters to the members. My album collection is almost complete. My room is basically an EXO shop at this point. I never would have imagined that I'd fall so deeply for these boys, but I did and I do not regret a single second of my time stanning them. EXO will always have a special place in my heart and I will support them forever.

Again, thank you so much for reading and sticking with me for so long! Subscribe, comment, and/or upvote if you're enjoying these fun little short stories! And if you'd like to join my crowdfund, I'd really appreciate the support! See you soon with the next update!