pairing: BaekLay
length: 3123 words

“Yixing!”

Upon hearing the Starbucks barista call out his name, Yixing dashed forward to grab his caramel frappe from the pick-up counter. There were several other students hovering around, waiting for their drinks to be made, so he weaved his way through the crowd to the straw station at the other side of the room.

As he poked a straw into the creamy light brown drink, Yixing checked his phone for the time and groaned when he realized he had been waiting almost fifteen minutes for his drink. That was fifteen minutes of studying he had just lost and since it was final exams season, every minute was extremely precious. He still had six chapters of neurobiology to review and a twenty-page paper to finish for his advanced writing class.

It was a good thing he wasn’t planning on sleeping tonight.

With that, he held his drink close to his chest and pushed open the door, speedily walking through so he could return to the library that was next to the Starbucks café. But in his haste, Yixing didn’t see a boy, who was holding a skateboard, walking up the steps and they instantly collided into each other.

Yixing stumbled to the ground, falling to his knees, and he hissed when he felt his bony knees bang against the hard cement. The palms of his hands also skidded across the cement floor, causing them to burn as the skin split open.

“Dude, are you okay?”

“Not really,” Yixing muttered under his breath, wincing as he carefully pushed his body up from the ground and felt his scraped knees rub against the torn fabric of his dark blue jeans. It took him an extra second to realize that he was no longer holding his drink and he whipped his head around, eyes scanning in panic to see where it had fallen.

His gaze soon alighted on the lost drink, the plastic domed lid just barely hanging onto the rim of the cup as the light brown liquid spilled all over the floor. Yixing then noticed that it was next to a pair of white Nike shoes that were attached to a shell-shocked boy who had coffee all over his clothes, his skateboard flipped on its side as it lay forgotten by its owner.

“Oh my god,” Yixing immediately lunged towards the skater, ignoring the searing sensation in his knees and his palms, to frantically apologize, “I’m so, so, so sorry that my drink got all over you!”

“It’s fine,” the skater answered, smiling ruefully as he gingerly lifted the bottom of his coffee-drenched shirt away from his body. “Accidents happen.” He then motioned to Yixing’s bleeding hands and knees. “But seriously, dude, I think you should go to the nurse or something. That looks like it hurts a lot.”

“No, I’m fine!” Yixing hastily answered before letting out another loud hiss when a cool breeze suddenly blew, causing his wounds to sting even more. “I’m—I’m fine,” he repeated through gritted teeth as he haggardly pasted on a smile. “Let me—let me pay you the laundry fee for—for your clothes,” the Chinese male continued, stiffly gesturing to the skater’s coffee-stained outfit.

“Don’t worry about it, dude. This is honestly nothing,” the skater reassured him with a small smile. “I, uh, think you should worry about yourself first.”

“But—”

The skater suddenly looped his arm around Yixing’s and firmly grabbed the taller male’s wrist. “Okay, dude, you talk way too much. C’mon, let’s go to my dorm to fix you up, since it seems like you really don’t want to see the nurse. Then we can talk about laundry fees or whatever.” Using his foot, he deftly flipped his skateboard into a vertical position so that it was easier to grab without having to bend down, since Yixing couldn’t bend his injured knees without experiencing more flares of pain. Once it was tucked securely under his left arm, the skater pointed at a tall dorm building in the northeast direction. “My place isn’t far. Just a few minutes of walking, I promise.”

Yixing was about to nod in agreement when he glanced at the library and remembered why he was on campus in the first place. “Wait! I have to study for my finals! I’m already really behind!”

“You can study at my place,” the skater offered, his grip on Yixing refusing to lessen even one bit. “My roommate is studying at his girlfriend’s dorm right now and he’ll probably end up staying over like he always does.”

“Still—”

“Okay, let’s go. You’re not getting out of this, dude. And there’s no way you can study with your hands bleeding all over the place,” the skater sensibly pointed out as he began steering Yixing in the direction of his dorm building.

The Chinese male bit his lip, partly out of frustration at himself for being so clumsy and partly due to the throbbing pain in his knees as he robotically walked beside the other boy who was delicately guiding Yixing.

This definitely wasn’t how he had envisioned his sleepless night of studying.

--

“Welcome to my humble abode,” the skater—Yixing had learned that his name was Byun Baekhyun during the five-minute walk—announced as he led the injured Chinese boy through the doorway. “You can sit at the dining table. I’ll go grab a first aid kit.”

Once Yixing was comfortably seated at the square table near the kitchen, Baekhyun walked into the hallway to rummage through the cabinets for his first aid kit. While he did, Yixing called out, “Thank you for being so nice. I really appreciate it.”

“No sweat, dude. I’m always down to help out a bro.”

Yixing’s smile was pinched again, not because of the pain this time, but because it felt so weird being addressed as a “bro” by this stranger. Especially since he had stolen glances at the skater boy during the walk to the dorm and the Chinese male had been able to confirm that Baekhyun was a good-looking guy with his street swagger and styled-up hair. Yixing didn’t think he liked how he was already placed in the bro-zone, even though he also knew that he hadn’t made the best first impression earlier. Stupid, clumsy feet.

“Here we go.” The skater tugged out the large plastic kit and shut the cabinet door before returning to the dining table. He undid the clasps, and took out several alcohol wipes and a box of bandages. “Let’s start on your hands first.”

“Okay.” Yixing obediently held out his hands, bloody palms facing up, and watched as Baekhyun began gently dabbing the cuts with the alcohol wipes. The Chinese male inhaled sharply as the alcohol further intensified the pain and if it weren’t for Baekhyun firmly holding down his wrists against the wooden table, Yixing would have jerked his hands away from the amount of pain that was overloading his nerves.

“Almost done,” the skater murmured comfortingly as he quickly swiped one more alcohol wipe over Yixing’s right palm, which was no longer bloody red. “Okay, bandages on and…done!” Baekhyun surveyed his work with a smile of satisfaction, his thin fingers lightly pressing the edges of the bandages against Yixing’s palm to make sure that they were properly sticking.

“Thanks.”

“Now it’s time for your knees.” Baekhyun critically eyed the torn jeans, pursing his lips together in a straight line. After several seconds, he finally said, “Okay, dude, I know this’ll sound weird, but I promise I’m not trying to be a creep or anything.”

“Uh, okay… What—what is it?” the Chinese male warily asked.

“I’m going to need you to take off your pants. But wait! Hear me out!” the skater quickly followed up, seeing Yixing furrow his eyebrows in utter confusion. “I won’t be able to properly clean your scrapes with the torn fabric in the way and there’s blood on your pants anyway. I have a pair of basketball shorts you can borrow and you can either toss those jeans or wash them later. You okay with that?”

“I—I guess, yeah, that’s fine with me,” Yixing answered, feeling the tips of his ears burn. “Can I, uh, go…?” He gestured around the dorm room, hoping Baekhyun would understand what he was insinuating.

Luckily, the skater knew and he instantly turned to his closet to grab some shorts for Yixing to borrow. “The bathroom is to the left,” Baekhyun directed as he helped the Chinese male stand up from his seat. “You can change in there. I’ll clean up some things out here while I wait for you.”

“Thanks.” After taking the proffered black basketball shorts, Yixing hobbled into the bathroom and shut the door, exhaling noisily afterwards. His heart was palpitating at an extremely high rate, thanks to Baekhyun’s kind actions and kind face. It was hard to believe that someone this nice existed, especially after what Yixing had done to his outfit earlier, which the skater was still wearing.

Shimmying out of the jeans was even more agonizing than using the alcohol wipes to clean up his scratched up palms and Yixing had to bite down on his bottom lip to prevent himself from vocalizing his pain. The next few minutes were extremely excruciating and the Chinese boy almost had half a mind to just rip the pants off of him since it hurt so much to feel the fabric drag against his wounds. But he finally managed to tug them off and dropped them on the white-tiled floor. Slipping on the shorts was much easier and less painful, and Yixing was soon able to exit the bathroom with his jeans nestled in his arms.

Baekhyun had already changed into clean clothes by the time Yixing reappeared and he pointed to an empty plastic bag on the table. “You can put your pants in there.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

“You can do that while you sit and I’ll bandage up your knees.”

The Chinese male nodded as he sat down and leaned back, slightly pushing up his shorts so that his scraped knees were completely exposed. After the painful experience in the bathroom, the alcohol wipes didn’t hurt as much and he was able to keep still with minimal flinching, although it did help that Baekhyun was using one arm to trap Yixing’s legs against the chair.

“There, all done.” Once both knees were properly bandaged, Baekhyun stood up from his previous crouched position and he surveyed his handiwork with clear satisfaction. “How do you feel?”

Yixing cautiously moved his legs, slightly afraid that his knees would flare up again, but there was only a dull pain. Baekhyun had done a good job and the Chinese male duly mentioned that.

“Awesome, I’m glad I could help, dude. I got injured a lot as a kid, especially when I first started skateboarding, so I’ve got a lot of experience fixing myself up,” Baekhyun explained. “Do you need anything to drink, since yours spilled?”

Yixing’s cheeks turned pink with mortification as he remembered the mishap that had brought them together in the first place. “Just water is fine,” he mumbled, keeping his head down as the flush crept down his neck.

If he noticed how embarrassed Yixing was, the skater chose to ignore it and instead cheerfully answered, “Got it, dude,” before promptly bringing over a glass of chilled water from the kitchen. “If you need anything else, feel free to ask.”

The Chinese male hummed in acknowledgement as he took a sip of water, letting the cold liquid cascade down his dry throat. This was nice—refreshing, even.

But the drink did nothing to cool down his blushing face and Yixing forced himself to keep his head down so that Baekhyun couldn’t see how red he was. If only the skater boy didn’t ooze charisma or have such a cute face or showcase that radiant smile powered by a thousand suns. Then this entire situation wouldn’t be as humiliating as it was and the Chinese male could easily forget how he had made an utter fool of himself in front of someone so kind and good-looking. Just his luck that the universe would throw someone like Baekhyun in his path when he was least prepared for it.

“So, dude, what final do you need to study for?” the skater suddenly asked, seeing how Yixing seemed to be too tongue-tied to say anything. “Must be something hard, since you really freaked out earlier when I stopped you from going to the library.”

“Uh, I have neurobiology in two days and a twenty-page essay that’s due at the end of the week. And next week, I have back-to-back exams for organic chemistry and psychobiology.”

Baekhyun let out a low whistle as he leaned back in his seat. “Yikes, dude, I’d definitely be freaking out if I were you. I thought my finals schedule was bad, but yours sounds like a nightmare.”

“What do you have?”

“Quantum physics in two days, electromagnetism and applied cryptography next week—not back-to-back, though, thank God—and a fun little acting performance on the last day of exams that I probably won’t prepare for until the day before, which my co-stars will hate me for but I kind of don’t have a choice since my other exams are fifty percent of my grade in each class,” Baekhyun casually listed out.

Yixing’s mouth dropped open; this skater kid was in the engineering school?! What?!

Byun Baekhyun just became a hundred times more attractive.

“But, yeah, I should probably get back to studying too. I was planning to get something from Starbucks during one of my study breaks, but this little adventure was honestly way more fun and I’m kind of glad I bumped into you,” the skater commented with a wide grin as he reached for his quantum physics textbook. “Anyway, go ahead and make yourself comfortable, dude. I promise I won’t bother you anymore.”

“Oh, yeah, uh, thanks,” Yixing answered in a stutter, internally chastising himself at the same time, before he bent over to grab his notes from his backpack which was nestled underneath his chair. At least this meant he wouldn’t continue exposing how not-cool he was to Baekhyun, who was probably regretting inviting someone so incredibly lame and awkward like Yixing.

In fact, the Chinese male was so focused on keeping his gaze trained on his detailed neurobiology notes that he missed the soft smile on Baekhyun’s face when the skater silently watched Yixing study before looking at his own textbook.

--

Deep into their studying session, Baekhyun’s phone vibrated against the wooden table and he quickly picked it up to see who had messaged him. “Oh, it’s my roommate.” He unlocked his phone screen and scanned the message while Yixing silently stared at him with round eyes.

He didn’t want to leave yet.

Seconds later, the skater set his phone back down on the table and said, “It’s nothing. Chanyeol just wanted to let me know that he’s sleeping over at his girlfriend’s place again tonight, so I shouldn’t wait up for him.”

Yixing let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding for the past minute, relieved that he wasn’t being kicked out yet. “That’s nice of him to update you,” the Chinese male quietly commented while keeping his eyes cast down on his neurobiology textbook.

Baekhyun shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I usually assume he’ll stay over at her place, since it’s a hassle for him to come all the way back here when she lives on the other side of campus. And,” he grinned cheekily, “that means I get to have the dorm all to myself for the night.”

Oh. Yixing would have to leave soon then.

He tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his chest, knowing he was being foolish for allowing himself to feel this way. “Um, when should I leave then? Like, uh, when are you planning to sleep?” the Chinese male asked, his tongue twisting over his words and causing him to sound like an idiot—which he already was at this point, to his chagrin.

“Why d’you ask?”

“Y’know… So you can, uh, rest and stuff,” Yixing explained while silently wishing something could impale him right now, since he sounded so lame. “I’m planning on studying all night, so I can just go back to the library. That way, I’m not disturbing you. And I also feel like I’ve intruded long enough.”

“It’s fine, dude.” Baekhyun grinned at him again. “I need to finish studying for my quantum mechanics final too, so I’ll stay up with you.” The skater then gestured to his roommate’s empty bed. “And you can totally sleep over if you want. Chanyeol barely uses his bed, and I can lend you some extra sheets and a blanket.”

Even though his heart was screaming at him to accept the offer, Yixing shook his head. “I shouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a really nice offer and I’d like to stay. You’ve actually been really nice to me the whole night, but—”

“Chill, dude, it’s okay. Really. If you want to stay, just stay.” Baekhyun stood up and walked to the hallway again to find the extra bed sheets. “Found ‘em!” He came back with several thick sheets piled onto his arms and he walked over to Chanyeol’s bed, unceremoniously dumping them onto the mattress. “I’ll fix them up during my next study break.”

“Oh, no, you really don’t have to, Baekhyun,” the Chinese male quickly protested while he jumped up from his seat.

“Nuh-uh-uh,” the skater wagged his finger and lightly pushed Yixing back into his chair. “Go back to studying for your exam. We can have a snack break in an hour. I’ve got loads of Pepero in one of the kitchen cabinets. My mom bought them for me and I’ve barely dented the supply.”

Yixing weakly sat down, his heart pounding loudly in his chest, as he nodded. “Thanks again, Baekhyun. I…really appreciate everything. Seriously.”

The skater chuckled. “It’s my pleasure. We can also grab breakfast together in the morning if you’re down. We’ll need some brain food after studying all night.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’m down.”

“Great! Now let’s get back to studying!” Baekhyun pumped his fist in the arm before plopping back down in his seat and picking up his pencil.

Yixing briefly watched as the skater began diligently solving practice problems again before he returned to his own textbook, glad that Baekhyun wasn’t able to hear his beating heart.

Maybe spilling his coffee on him had actually been a positive mistake.

Yeah, it was worth getting his knees and hands all scraped up for this.

♈♈♈

A/N: Happy seventh anniversary to our lovely boys of EXO! They've reached such a huge milestone in their career and I couldn't be prouder of how successful they are! Not many groups can make it to their seventh year, still breaking records left and right as a group while also pursuing thriving solo careers. Because, WOW, it's been an amazing year for them solo-wise. Lay is out here ready to take over the world with all of his collabs (Alan Walker, Jason Derulo, Far East Movement) and seeing him conduct so many interviews in English is so inspiring, because it isn't easy to be trilingual, especially when you're learning languages as an adult. And I was so happy that he was invited to attend the Grammy's in February and I know he'll achieve his dream of performing on that stage one day. Meanwhile, Baekhyun is branching out as a fashion designer and I am in love with his clothing! I have a few pieces and I'm planning to get more when the next collection drops! I wish I could've been at his launch party in LA, but I left literally a week before it happened. OTL But it's okay. :') I'm just glad it was so successful and that he's also been able to relax by playing PUBG. ^^ And CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT CHEN'S SOLO?? Oh my god, it is a MASTERPIECE. I have been crying every single night as I watch the MV and listen to him sing. Everything about his solo debut is perfect. And I'm so happy that fans and the general public are loving his solo as well, because he deserves all of this success with such a beautiful, heart-wrenching song. I love it so much, especially because April is a special month to me. Even though I'm a little sad that I wasn't able to see him perform at a music show or attend a fan sign (pls give him another wk of promos, sme!!), I'm just happy that he's doing so well on the charts and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of his album to add to my collection! And I wanted to cry when I saw their music picks to celebrate this special day, because Don't Go, Peter Pan, and so many of my favorite songs were chosen. Our boys have great taste in music. :')

I've been working on this triple update for the past week so I could release these stories in time for the anniversary, even though I had initially planned to work on them in March. But my big life change out all of my free time last month, so I didn't have any time or energy to sit down and write. Things are a lot better this month and I've been able to easily write out several thousand words a day, which has been a bit difficult the past year or so. Hopefully I can keep up this momentum and I'll do my best to prepare more stories in a timely manner! Regardless, thank you so much for being patient and sticking with me for so long! I am eternally grateful for your support and I couldn't have come this far without you guys! Anyway, I hope you all are doing well! Have a lovely day and once again, happy seventh anniversary to EXO!