It was a quiet, calm, but mostly lazy Sunday night when Chanyeol pulled himself away from his homework (doing it at the last minute once again), and staggered out of his room and into the kitchen. He pouted openly when he opened the fridge and saw his favorite juice was missing. His stomach growled and he whimpered, he studied through dinner again. Rubbing his tummy he started opening up cupboards looking for something to eat. Chanyeol was making a fuss at not finding anything to eat in the house, well nothing he wanted to eat anyway.

"I'm so hungry," moped Chanyeol as he threw himself on the island countertop, exaggerating his posture when he saw his mother walk into the kitchen with an empty mug,

His mother smiled sympathetically at him and put her coffee mug in the sink, walking out of the kitchen. If he was really hungry he would heat up the leftovers in the fridge. Hopefully her son would figure out the microwave without her or her husband’s assistance (or setting their newly remodeled kitchen on fire).

Chanyeol pouted when his mother did nothing to help remedy his growling tummy. He thought for sure his mom would stay and make him something to eat. But all she did was smile at him. Standing up again, Chanyeol leaned against the countertop and pulled out his phone. Maybe one of his friends were free to go for a walk to the Quiky Mart and get something to eat like ice cream (he felt like ice cream for dinner was a good idea).  Pulling out his phone as he exited from the kitchen, Chanyeol started texting his best friends, yelping when he walked into the hallway countertop. “Meant to do that!” he said to himself as he continued walking.

*

His friends declined the late night ice cream run, stating they were going to bed and just weren’t interested in going out on a Sunday night for something so insignificant as ice cream. Chanyeol whined and begged them to come with him, he didn’t want to walk alone! There were weirdos about. Chanyeol was tucking his wallet into his pocket when he got one last text ‘And you’re the biggest weirdo of them all!’ Chanyeol scoffed at the sentence and decided he was better off not texting back, he also didn’t have the skills to take Baekhyun and Jongdae both on in an all out  argument.

Chanyeol was kicking a pebble down the street toward the small convenience store in his neighborhood, grumbling to himself under his breath. He took out his phone again and decided he should be doing something more productive with his free time. While unlocking his phone, Chanyeol tripped over his shoelaces and fell to his knees.  “Ow,” he groaned, on all fours, his phone a few feet away from his hands.

If Park Chanyeol had one fault (we will only focus on one for now), it would be he is too clumsy.

His big feet and bow legged legs had a way of getting him into trouble or forgetting the laws of gravity. Chanyeol would trip, bump, stumble, fall, crash into things or someone at least twelve times a day, depending on whether or not it was a good day. Baekhyun called him his “proof that God had a sense of humor”, Jongdae called him “A walking disaster”. Despite the unfavorable nicknames his best friends gave him, they never left. Which proved to be a good thing, especially when Chanyeol needed constant reminders to tie his shoelace, to watch where he was going, or to mind the stairs. Not only was he clumsy, Chanyeol was also a busy body. He couldn’t sit still to save his life. He was often sent to detention for leaving his desk and wandering around the classroom when he should have been studying or listening to the lesson. Even when he was sitting he was always moving some part of his body. Tapping his pencil on his desk creating offbeats and rhythms, it drove his teachers insane.

Chanyeol pushed himself off the ground and got back up to his feet, dusting off his pants as he did. He groaned when he stepped over to where his phone had fallen and picked up, sighing in relief when he saw there was no damage to the screen at all. If he had broken this phone, he would never hear the end of it (he had already gone through four phones already from falling or dropping his phone).  He looked around and relaxed a bit, no one had seen him fall.

No matter how many times he fell, he was always embarrassed at others seeing him fall. Especially nowadays since there was one person in particular that was always present whenever Chanyeol fell, and this person had the ability to make Chanyeol feel like a fool for not being able to walk on his own two feet without causing a catastrophe.

Several weeks ago before school started, Chanyeol wouldn’t have cared. He would of laughed at himself as well at how clumsy he could be. It wasn’t till one afternoon when walking with a fellow classmate to music class that Chanyeol felt so horrified at his ability to walk into anything without much effort.  

It was like any other walk toward the auditorium, Chanyeol had both of his hands on his backpacks straps, walking carefree with his classmate, discussing what would more or less be their lesson today. Chanyeol laughed out loud at the other students remarks about their music teacher’s balding problem when it happened.

Chanyeol stopped laughing when he saw the upperclassmen (he could tell by the way his uniform showed off more maturity and he didn’t have a natural hair color; seniors were allowed to wear their hair anyway they desired) walking out of the auditorium with two other upperclassmen. The guy was tall, taller then him! Chanyeol gulped (but kept on walking), the guy was also super hot too! He tuned out his classmates voice (he had no idea what the guy was talking about now in the first place) and waited for the upperclassmen to speak. He was rewarded when the older boy laughed out loud, showing off his gummy smile and he heard him call his friend “an idiot”, but affectionately gave the smaller male a side hug. Oooh, it was like music to his ears.  Chanyeol thought to himself at the time that he wouldn’t mind if the older boy called him an idiot too, as long as he got a hug afterwards.

Chanyeol was lost in his daydream about those hugs and him being called an idiot that he didn’t even see the open door-and walked right into the it.

Chanyeol let out a sound (it was somewhere between pain and surprise), and fell on his with a loud ‘plop!’. His classmate stopped walking and couldn’t help but laugh, as did everybody else who saw Chanyeol walk into the door.  Chanyeol’s face turned pink, but went beet red when he saw the older (hot) student had too seen him walk into the open door and fall on his bottom. The upperclassmen wasn’t laughing but was giving Chanyeol a puzzled look. Chanyeol clamored to his feet and fled inside the building, not before stumbling over his untied shoelaces (‘really shoelaces!’ Chanyeol screamed in his head) and bumping his head on the door frame. Chanyeol could feel the heat of embarrassment coming from his face as he ran away. He shrunk in his seat in the back and did his best to stay out of the way for the rest of the class, even though the upperclassman had left long ago, dragging his friends with him who were laughing uncontrollably.

Chanyeol frowned at himself for suddenly remembering the first time he fell in front of Kris (he finally knew his name, thanks to Baekhyun). He had fallen many times after that day, but none of them were as embarrassing as the first time. Because that was the first and only time Kris had ever looked at Chanyeol.

“Wow that's sad,” Chanyeol mumbled to himself as he pulled on the store’s door, only to find it wasn’t opening it.

Chanyeol pulled on the door several times before the clerk inside looked up from his book with his large owlish eyes and shouted “Push!” before going back to his book, muttering to himself.

Laughing nervously at his failed attempt to open the door, Chanyeol pushed the door and to his surprise it opened. He flashed the clerk a thankful smile but the owlish boy just waved him off, never looking up from his book (‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’). Tucking his hands into his pockets, Chanyeol pulled out his phone again (that was still on) and started to browse through the app that was currently taking up most of his time nowadays.

Jongdae was the first one to tell him about the app. (‘Dude, I heard they are making an app for phones now,’ exclaimed Jongdae excitedly, ‘it’s going to be awesome!’). Chanyeol nodded his head and went about his business, he wasn’t really interested in the specs and trials.

One hot August evening while he laid in the corner of his room where it was cooler, Chanyeol was startled when Jongdae burst into his room and was holding out his phone showing off the screen to him.

“It’s here!!” shouted Jongdae with happiness, “Let’s go catch pokemon, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol blinked in surprise as he was yanked up to his feet and his friend manhandled him looking for his phone so he could download the app for the tall boy.

Humming to himself, Chanyeol started walking down a random aisle, grabbing a bag of cheese flavored chips, a candy licorice stick covered in small brightly colored hard candies, and a bag of trail mix that had more candy than granola or nuts. As he was turning a corner, he suddenly remembered the main reason he came here and started to backwalk his way toward the corner where the ice cream usually was put. Chanyeol was still staring at his phone, tapping away at the screen.

His thumb swiped over to his pokedex, looking over the pokemon he had collected so far. They were all adorable, cute, squishy monsters, all different types from fairy to poison. Sure he had a lot of Pidgey’s and Caterpie’s but they were all cute to him. He was especially proud of the Psyduck and Magikarp that he collected. He named them after his younger classmates whom he shared music and English Lit. class with. Chanyeol had a habit of renaming his pokemon after people he knew once he caught them.

Chanyeol was tapping on his avatar, snorting at his username (for the millionth time) when his phone vibrated gently in his palm. Raising up his phone to his eye level, Chanyeol jumped in surprise. Several feet in front of him, near the display for miniature cakes and desserts was an adorable fluffy Jigglypuff.

“Baekie!!” exclaimed Chanyeol, he already had a name for it.

The owlish clerk looked up from his book and then back down when he realized the tall dork (yeah he knew the guy was a complete dork) was on his phone, talking loudly to himself while moving from side to side in excitement while furiously tapping at his phone. Just as he was about to go back to reading the clerk looked up when he saw the door open and another tall guy walked in (what a surprise he was on his phone too), but he immediately recognized who it was; one of his usual late night regulars. Giving the customer a nod of acknowledgement, the owlish young man went back to his book.

“Why you do this to me Baekkie?” moped Chanyeol as his fourth pokeball missed the Jigglypuff again.

The Jigglypuff in front of him seemed to be taunting him. It swayed from side to side cutely and even gave Chanyeol a little wink. The name ‘Baekkie’ was totally justified. This Jigglypuff reminded him of a certain someone, who was just as evil as the adorable fluffy pokemon.

“You wanna fight Baekkie? I’ll fight you,” growled Chanyeol under his breath as he prepared another pokemon, “It’s on!”

Chanyeol moved around the display and started throwing pokeballs left and right at the pokemon in front of him. The strategy wasn’t working however, all of the balls were missing the Jigglypuff and falling off to the side. Chanyeol glared at the pokemon and took a step to the left (in front of one fridges filled with assorted teas, supplement drinks, and energy drinks.) and flick his wrist to get the target back on the Jigglypuff so he can throw another pokeball at it. The Jigglypuff was starting to sing when Chanyeol raised his finger to the screen, that was already moving the pokeball. Out of the corner of his eye he could see someone approach him, but he more important things to worry about! He saw on his screen another player approaching. Chanyeol suddenly felt anxious.  He had to make sure he captured the pokemon first! Baekkie was his, he saw him first! Chanyeol swiped his finger across his screen as he stumbled forward from the door of the fridge behind him hit him in the back suddenly.

Chanyeol waved his arms up and down, trying to regain his balance but, it didn’t work. He started to fall forward. Chanyeol’s phone slipped from his hands as he waved around frantically like a madman. He shouted out loud before he fell into the display of whipped cream desserts, face first in front of him with a loud crash.

“Oh !” shouted the customer, wincing at how sprawled out Chanyeol was laying, table and dessert squashed under him, “Dude are you okay? I didn’t see you!”

Chanyeol groaned, sending whipped cream up and falling on his face and hair. Okay that hurt. But it was so sweet. Why was whipped cream so delicious? Chanyeol got on his on his knees, yelping in pain when the table slid underneath him and crushed the tips of his fingers. Chanyeol flung his hands back like they had touched fire (they were under the table but,), sending whipped cream all over the place and hitting something solid in the process.

There was a grunt of pain behind him, but Chanyeol paid no attention to it. He had more important things to worry about. Chanyeol scrambled around on the messy cream covered floor, looking for his phone that fell out of his hands when he fell. He shouted “Ah-HA!” when he discovered his phone underneath the metal shelf where cleaning products were placed. Crawling on his hands and knees (slipping a few times), Chanyeol grabbed his phone and wiped the excess whipped cream away from the screen. He brought the phone closer to his face (he couldn’t really see the display thanks to the residue left from the cream), squinting to make out what was showing. He shouted in happiness when he saw the Jigglypuff was still there. Chanyeol threw his hands back, hitting something solid once again.

“Son of a !” cursed the other customer in pain, “right in the jewelry box, again!”

Eh?...That voice sounds familiar.

Chanyeol made a face (the kinda face a confused puppy would make) and turned around to see who that familiar voice was. His eyes widen in horror as he saw Kris huddled over the shelf clutching his abdomen in pain.

“Oh poop,” breathed Chanyeol as his arms fell to his side while he stared at the older boy in front of him.

Kris was doing his best not to touch any of the whipped cream that was all over the side of the shelf while hunched over, he was standing on his tiptoes, trying to not get his high top Jordan’s dirty. His black coat hung perfectly around his broad shoulders, and his black clothes seemed to bring out the silver in his hair even more. His face was contorted in pain, but he still looked handsome. Chanyeol stared at him in awe, he couldn’t help it. For a tall guy he sure had good balance, unlike Chanyeol. Chanyeol was sitting on the dirty floor, his clothes covered in whipped cream and on his face and hair. Chanyeol looked like a puppy who got into white paint, all covered up and looked so dazed.

‘Oh wow, even in pain he looks handsome,’ cooed Chanyeol in his thoughts, ‘Wow, he has so many earrings, that’s so cool! I wish I could have silver hair like that! But it probably wouldn’t look the same. I should dye my hair! I wish! Ugh, I can feel some of the whipped cream in my crotch...Okay why am I thinking about that?’ Chanyeol shook his head, ‘Oh my good grief! Did he just groan? Aaaaahhhh! Don’t make those sounds! Not in MY presence! I am a child of- Oh my gwad! His hands are huge!!’

Chanyeol was staring up at Kris in awe when the older boy finally looked up, his eyes still a little watery from being hit in the crotch twice in a matter of minutes. He grimaced as he stood upright, moving away from the shelf, the pain was slowly receding. Kris patted his chest, his fingers splayed out, showing off the rings on his fingers. He eyed the person on the ground. Kris’s eyebrows rose in recognition, he knew the boy on the floor who was looking a little lost. It was the same expression the kid (is it okay to call him a ‘kid’?)  had when he saw the younger boy the first time outside of the school’s auditorium where music, drama, and choir classes were held. Kris clenched his fist as he stared at the boy, praying to the universe that his skin color didn’t change.

How can someone look so adorable covered in whipped cream (Despite also crotch punching you twice on accident)?

It was sort of the longest running joke among Kris’s friends that Kris had a thing for cute things, and cute boys.

The first time he saw the Chanyeol (he learned the sophomore's name thanks to Luhan’s social connections at school. Being popular had its perks), he was taken back by how adorable the boy looked, sitting on the ground. It was almost puppy like (Did Kris ever mention he had a thing for puppies?) the way Chanyeol sat there looking so embarrassed. And when his cheeks flushed a pale pink, Kris had to grip his folder in his hands tightly to keep from cooing and going over to console the poor boy. He snapped out of his daydream (which consisted of him hugging Chanyeol and rocking him back and forth while telling him he was so cute) when he heard Luhan’s creepy laugh and Suho’s soundless laugh that he had when he was trying not to laugh loudly (he also had an unattractive laugh). He tried his best to keep his face neutral as he watched Chanyeol struggle to his feet and flee into the building, not before bumping his head against the door frame. Kris felt bad for him, he knew he couldn’t stop everyone from laughing at Chanyeol. He could only do what was in his capabilities; drag his dumb friends away. Which is what he did. Grabbing Suho and Luhan by the collar, Kris dragged them away from the auditorium, ignoring their obnoxious laughter.

Kris knew that kicked puppy look was his weakness, so whenever he saw Chanyeol in the hallways or outside with his two friends he always stayed clear. Heavens only knows how much of a walking disaster that boy was. Heaven also knew how much of a sap Kris was for adorable things and people, mainly Chanyeol.

“You are not fooling anyone dude,” said Luhan as he looked at Kris who was turning his back so he wouldn’t see the tall dork the guy had been secretly crushing on (not that it was a secret to Luhan, he knew everything) as the boy tripped over his feet but was caught by his friends, “Just be that wannabe tsundere complex you got going on,  and go talk to him.”

Kris gave Luhan a stern look but didn’t say anything. It was ridiculous to argue with the guy, Luhan always won the arguments anyway.

Despite ardently insisting he wanted to know nothing about the sophomore (although deep down he did), Luhan would give snippets of information to Kris once a week about Chanyeol. Information that range to what classes the boy took, his favorite subjects, what he liked to eat for lunch, his obsession with hoodies and snapbacks, instruments he could play, whom the boy interacted with on a daily basis (‘he is friends with the lunch lady, can you believe it!’ exclaimed Luhan), his allergies, and to what app games he enjoyed playing.

One day about a month ago, Luhan gave him a piece of information that could in fact work in his favor and maybe, get Kris closer to the guy.

“Have you ever heard of  ‘Pokemon Go!’?” inquired Luhan thoughtfully as they sat in their usual spot in the cafeteria deemed the ‘cool’ table, nibbling on a carrot stick

“Why?” replied Kris as he poked at his lunch,  ugh fried chicken again, before shoving his plate away.

“‘Cuz a little birdie told me that your puppy loves that game,” shrugged Luhan nonchalantly, but everyone knew it was anything but nonchalant, “And he plays it literally all the time.”

Kris looked up from his food and stared at Luhan who was humming softly to himself in his seat. Kris glance to the far end of the cafeteria where Chanyeol and his two friends always sat, and his eyes widen when he saw Chanyeol on his phone holding it up moving it from side to side and showing it to his friend with the catlike mouth and smiling broadly. Kris watched quietly as Chanyeol picked up his chicken wrap and got up from the table, talking to his friends and pointing outside. His friends sighed and also got up, and followed the taller boy out, who was still staring at his phone.

“‘Pokemon Go!’ you say?” asked Kris quietly, taking out his phone and unlocking it

“You’re welcome.” snipped Luhan who took Kris’s plate and started helping himself to the fried chicken while Kris was busy on his phone.

Kris looked at Chanyeol, the boy was completely covered in the smashed desserts. There was frosting in his hair, making it stick upright. His black hoodie was smeared with strawberry filling and whipped cream. Chanyeol’s pants although black were now completely white. He was one cute mess.

Kris sighed at the sight.

Chanyeol felt his heart race when he saw Kris was staring at him and giving him a look of ambiguity.

‘Aw man, I wonder if he is going to yell at me?’ wondered Chanyeol in his head, ‘I probably...no wait, he pushed me first. So he shouldn’t yell at me. Please don’t yell at me! He probably has a scary voice when he’s mad! But this is probably the longest he has ever looked at me. Dude, take advantage of the situation! Cherish it! Who knows when the next time will be when he decides to look in your direction! ….Oh wow that is very creepy of you Chanyeol. What are you a masochist? Ah! I don’t care! He’s looking at me and that’s all that matters! This will be a funny story to tell our kids when they get older. Our babies will be smart and beautiful!’

“YAH!” bellowed an angry voice, causing both Chanyeol and Kris to jump (and for Chanyeol to snap out of his thoughts/daydreams)

Chanyeol turned around and he paled at the sight of the clerk, looking like the devil himself with how red in the face he looked. If looks could kill.

“What the hell happened!?” demanded the clerk angrily, “What the fuc-LOOK AT THIS MESS!?! DO YOU KNOW WHO IS GONNA HAVE TO CLEAN THIS UP!?!”

Chanyeol shrunk back on the floor, this guy was crazy scary! For someone so short, he had a loud voice and a murderous look about him. Chanyeol clenched his eyes closed and whimpered when the clerk kept on yelling.

“YOU! ARE GOING TO CLEAN THIS UP! AND PAY FOR THE DAMAGES!” ranted the store clerk, hands on his hips scolding Chanyeol, “STAY RIGHT THERE WHILE I GO GET THE MOP! UNBELIEVEABLE!!”

Chanyeol peeked and saw the short clerk storming off to the supply closet, talking loudly to himself (‘I can’t have peace and quiet when I am finishing up my book!’), he pouted and slowly started to turned around to see if Kris was still there.

His heart dropped when he saw that Kris was nowhere in sight. Chanyeol sighed sadly and slowly got up to his feet, tucking his phone away in his pocket. As he was wiping the excess frosting off the frindge of his hair, the store clerk came storming back to him, with a cleaning cart in tow. Chanyeol went stiff as the clerk gave him a stern look and ed a mop stick at him.

“Start cleaning dork!” barked the owlish eyed clerk.

Chanyeol spent almost two hours cleaning up the mess in the store. By the time it was midnight, Chanyeol was slowly walking back up the route to his home, munching on a bag cheese flavored chips, his pockets stuffed with trail mix and candy. After the clerk (known as ‘Soo) had calmed down from his little meltdown, he quietly ordered Chanyeol to grab what he came in the store to buy and he would pay for it himself. Chanyeol’s eyes watered with graditude and he flung himself onto the shorter male, telling him he wasn’t so scary after all and he would be a better customer from now on.

Chanyeol snuck into his house and crept back up the stairs to his room. He stared at his favorite hoodie and pants, now stained with frosting, whipped cream, and jelly filling. He groaned and started to updress. He felt sticky everywhere. Chanyeol nearly toppled over when he was trying to take his pants off. A soft clatter alerted him and he turned around and saw his phone on the floor. Shimmying out his pants (‘curse you skinny jeans!’) and kicking off his shoes as well Chanyeol stepped toward the object and picked it up. He sighed in relief when he saw it wasn’t damaged from what he put it through tonight. He put it safely on his desk, patting it affectionately before he tiptoed out of his room toward the hallway bathroom. A quick shower to get rid of the stickiness and gunk from his hair was in desperate order.

*

Chanyeol was gently cleaning his phone off when he remembered the whole reason why he got covered in desserts in the first place: Baekkie. Chanyeol quickly unlocked his phone and opened up the app, he was silently praying that he at least caught the minx Jigglypuff. It would make this horrible night worth it if he caught the Jigglypuff.

Chanyeol slumped his shoulders in defeat when he saw in his pokedex that there was no Jigglypuff.

“This ,” he moaned as he threw his phone onto his desk top and fell back onto his bed. “I’m going to bed.”

Throwing the covers back and nestling into his bed, Chanyeol threw the blankets over his head and pouted for the rest of the night till he fell asleep.

‘At least I got to see Kris,’ thought Chanyeol fondly as he let out one more yawn before closing his eyes. ‘That kind of makes up for it.’