Baekhyun stared unblinkingly at the paper filled with lyrics in his hand, as Chanyeol read through them in an effortless rhythm. After a few moments, Chanyeol stopped and looked up at him. "Baek?"

The said boy glanced at the taller helpessly, whining, "This is impossible!"

He pouted, crossing his arms and leaning back on his chair. Chanyeol was about to laugh, but something inside him clicked, and all of a sudden he was instead drawn irrisitably to the elder's face, the features that he knew, and those delicate, pouting pink lips -

"Chanyeol? Yah, Yeollie!" Chanyeol snapped out of his daze, immeadiately feeling stunned. What was that? He shook his head slightly, frowning to himself. Stop ...

"Chan?" Baekhyun leaned forwards, a worried look creasing his brow. "Are you okay? You've gone kinda -"

Chanyeol coughed awkwardly, waving a hand. "Nah, I'm fine. Well, better than your rapping anyway."

"Hey! Don't you insult the power of rapper Byun -"

And so it went on.

Chanyeol in a deep breath, trying to finally stifle the laughter that was threatening to overwhelm him. Besides him, Baekhyun was biting his lip, which was wobbling in an attempt not to laugh as they heard footsteps come closer. Pause. Then continue walking away. Baekhyun closed his eyes, breathing out deeply. Chanyeol did the same.

Then Baekhyun opened one eye, caught Chanyeol's gaze, and collapsed iinto a fit of giggles again.

Oh well. So much for being serious for one session.

"O-okay -" Chanyeol choked out. "I thin that - that we sh-should actually do this th-thing -" he in a deep breath, picked up the sheets from the chair, and tried to control the rising feeling if butterflies in his stomach as his fingers accidentally brushed Baekhyun's.

Baekhyun concentrated as hard as he could on the way that Chanyeol flowed smoothly through the lines of rap, trying to figure how he would do it. Chanyeol's deep voice filled his ears, and Baekhyun unconciously found himself relaxing into the taller boy's voice, letting it lull him into a half-asleep state.

"So you wanna give it a try now?" Chanyeol looked up, then his eyes widened as he saw Baekhyun dazing off. "Uh .. Baek?" The latter jerked slightly, his brown eyes clearing. "Oh .. Huh?"

He looked at him with round, confused eyes, and Chanyeol couldn't help but to laugh. "So cuuute~" he pinched his cheek out of instinct.

Baekhyun's face started to flush red at the contact, and he gulped audibly. Chanyeol also blinked, and quickly looked elsewhere, and an awkward silence fell between them. Seeing that Chanyeol wasn't looking, Baekhyun reached up and touched his cheek where Chanyeol had touched him. He could actually feel the heat creeping up his face, and truth be told, it almost scared a bit of him. The bit of him which said nervously, "Chanyeol is just a best friend, a bandmate. You're not supposed to feel like that. Since when did you feel like that?"

Park Chanyeol.

"Uhm ..." Chanyeol coughed awkwardly (again). He stood up, shuffling over to the recording studio. "Let's give it a try ..."

Baekhyung swallowed, grabbed his sheets, and escaped swiftly into the recorsing studio, the warmth of Chanyeol's fingers still lingering on his cheeks. Damn.

*A little while later*

"~ What d'you think about that? What d'you think about that? That?~"

"Hey mama~" Baekhyun sang under his breath as he rocked on his feet as the music played through. It was almost completed - Xiumin and his rap parts were to be recorded, it to be put through some edits, then released. He glanced at the sheets once more, then looked through the glass at Chanyeol, who was mouthing quick instructions at him. His eyes slid downwards.

And suddenly the music faded away, and he stared at the way that the younger's lips, moving, and his tounge, just visible as he talked -

Wait, what?

He quickly stopped the music, an embarassed flush covering his face for the nth time that day. Chanyeol quirked an eyebrow at him, which Baekhyun found annoying and also kind of weirdly y -

What the hell Baek, stop it, he growled at himself, before glancing up and grinning sheepishly at Chanyeol. The boy sighed, making an effort to exaggerate shaking his head and rolling his eyes, before signalling, One more try? Baekhyun nodded, and decided to keep his eyes firmly fixed on the paper and if he had to, absolutely had to, just to look at Chanyeol's hands.

The music started playing.

"Hey mama, jigeum baro i sungan~" Baekhyun hummed, then focused on Chanyeol's hands, counting him in, one, two, three, four -

*A few minutes later*

"That was awesome!" cheered Chanyeol as he greeted Baekhyun walking out of the recording studio. "You did great, Baek."

"Yehet," replied Baekhyun smugly, and Chanyeol broke into laughter, nudging him. "That's Sehunnie!"

"Oh? I guess ..." Baekhyun half heartedly grinned. Honestly, he didn't think the rap was as good as it could have been, but if Chanyeol was happy with it, so was he. It would do.

As he straightened out the lyric sheets, he watched Chanyeol clearing his stuff into his bag. He watched as he grabbed the stray pencils from the floor, and slid them into his pencil case, his fingers fumbling with the zip for a few moments. He traced the outline of his side profile as Chanyeol straightened, looking around in confusion for a second before blinking and reaching behind a desk to grab a folder. He took in the lean frame of the taller boy, and wondered vaguely what it would feel like to be -

"Holy sh't Baek," he muttered under his breath. Chanyeol looked over, and blinked. "Baek?"

Baekhyun felt a well of emotions rising up inside him, and the way that those eyes settled on his, the sound of his name from his lips, his everything ...

Forgive me, Baekhyun thought despairingly, then spun around, and covered Chanyeol's lips with his own.

Any regret that he might have had simply melted away, and for those swift two seconds that he kept kissing him before he pulled away were the best. Baekhyun could feel how soft the taller boy's lips were and even though he was too shy to open his mouth, he could somehow taste him, and it was everything purely Chanyeol ... Baekhyun pulled back, staring at his feet as silence fell between them, Chanyeol still frozen in place, his fingers hovering on his lips as he stood there. Baekhyun couldn't bring himself to look up at him. Blame him for it - he liked it. Chanyeol may never see him the same way again, but for those seconds he spent connected with him, the feel of his lips against his own ..."

"B-Baekhyun ..."

Sh't, he's mad at you, he's definitely mad at you, he's going to hate you forever - Baekhyun panicked. He heard a shuffle of footsteps come closer, and he internally braced himself for the words he expected to come.

"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol's voice was softer. And there was something different to it, something so ... strange, Baekhyun finally looked up.

And he gasped, but it was quickly stopped as Chanyeol cupped his face with his hand, and with no more words, leaned down and crashed their mouths together again.

Baekhyun stood for a moment, his legs already half-buckling so he was almost held up by Chanyeol. He felt the taller boy's arm slide around his waist, supporting him, and then Baekhyun summonded his wits, decided to try not to die of the explosion of emotions in his heart, and kissed back.

It was quite simple, magical.

Baekhyun pressed himself into the taller boy's body, the body that he had only felt in those friendship hugs that he had always wished for more in, or in the fanservice moments in which he wished were real ...

And here he was. Actually kissing the Park Chanyeol whom he had been loving for who knows how long.

Chanyeol tangled his fingers in Baekhyun's soft brown locks as he pulled him closer for a few seconds before breaking apart, in a deep breath full of air. In normal moments, Chanyeol would have laughed at the sight of Baekhyun - his shirt quite crumpled, his hair a mess, his lips kind of swollen - but now, to him, he had never been more beautiful. And he didn't want to hold back.

And when a still-slightly-breathless Baekhyun slid his arm around his neck, pulling him back down, Chanyeol didn't resist, and once again, the burst of colour swept over him as he tasted Baekhyun's sweet lips again.

But after a minute, Baekhyun suddenly pulled away.

He had a strange, lost look in his eyes.

And Chanyeol didn't like it.

"Baekhyun?" he asked carefully, stepped forwards. "What's wrong?"

He watched as the shorter male blinked a few times, frowning, before looking up at him.

"Chanyeol, I love you."

And it would have been something that was wonderful, but Baekhyun's eyes stopped him. A moment later, he added,

"I love you, but where is this going to go?"

Chanyeol's heart dropped. "What do you mean?"

"Where is this going to go?" repeated Baekhyun. "We're still under SM. We're still in EXO which happens to be one of the most popular boy bands in kpop. We are still ... in Korea. We know they'll never accept us, I ... Chanyeol, I don't know whether this will work out. I -"

"Hey. Baek."

Baekhyun halted, biting his lip. He could feel the sting behind his eyelids, and he thought, And now that I've finally got what I had always wanted, just to realize that it was never going to work out ...

He gave in when Chanyeol lifted his chin up, forcing the smaller boy to look up at him. Baekhyun stood frozen (once again) as Chanyeol brushed away the hair that was scattered around his forehead. "Baek, do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Then we'll make it work out, trust me on this. I don't know how yet, but as long as I can be with you and I can see you, it'll be fine."

After a second, he added with a smirk, "And people will accept us. I mean, look at our fans! EXO-Ls will love it, they will do much more than just accept us, Baek. Look at the fanfics they write! Who knows, maybe a fan somewhere who was inspired by the rapper Byun's performance in Hey Mama and is writing a fanfic about chanbaek's rapping lessons."

Baekhyun was laughing now. "You idiot," he cried. Chanyeol broke out into one of his usual toothy grin. "That's why you love me, Baek."

"Cheesy giant!" Baekhyun slapped him lightly on the chest, then wrapped his arms around Chanyeol's neck and kissed him one more time, their tounges now locked in a battle for dominance. Baekhyun smiled into the kiss as he heard a slightly breathless mumble of "I love you," from the other. He nibbled lightly on his lower lip as response.

A few minutes later, however, the door opened and before the two could react, a scream rang out and they heard what seemed to be a garbled version of "MY EYES!!" before they watched Xiumin flee the room, positively howling. Baekhyun giggled, and leaned his forehead against Chanyeol's chest, sighing in content as he felt the deep laughter vibrate through his chest.

Crouching outside, Chen nudged Sehun. The dinosaur-camel grinned triumphantly. "Gimme."

Sehun grumbled and flung a wad of notes in the elder's face. "God, I didn't think they were going to do it yet ..."

"My name isn't God," Chen quipped. "But yeah, thank you anyway." The singer escaped, sniggering, leaving a little-bit-poorer maknae sitting outside the recording studio with a helpless look on his face.

"Why did they have to kiss in the recording studio?" the poor boy moaned. "I need to record there in an hour ..."

Tearfully, Sehun slouched away to the dancing studio to whine to Kai about it all.