Kyungsoo stood frozen in his spot as he watched his little brother run towards Jongin.

“Haneul!” he yelled again, hoping that he would stop or at least slow down, but no, Kyungsoo was far behind Haneul and the kid didn’t seem to have any thoughts of stopping. As a matter of fact, he was already at the court, stopping at the fence and grabbing onto it with his tiny hands. Kyungsoo forced himself to move.

“Hyung, what are you doing there?” he heard Haneul ask Kim Jongin curiously.

To be honest, his little brother socializing with the school’s weirdo on a Monday night was nowhere near Kyungsoo’s plans, therefore he fastened his pace, trying not to be too obvious about it at the same time. His heart dropped to his stomach when Kim Jongin turned around and smiled, taking a step towards the fence Haneul was pressing himself up against.

“Hyung’s practicing dancing,” he bent his knees, poking Haneul’s nose playfully through the gap in the metal fence. “What are you doing here, buddy?”

Haneul turned around and giggled when Kyungsoo snatched him into his arms.

“I came here with my hyung!” he told Jongin happily, pointing at Kyungsoo’s cheek in case Jongin was confused. “This is my hyung.”

Kyungsoo bowed his head a little, knowing that he’s being slightly rude, but not really caring.

“I see,” Jongin grinned. “Well, your hyung doesn’t look happy. You shouldn’t run away from him like this, especially when it’s dark.”

Kyungsoo switched Haneul’s position for him to be facing away from Jongin and pressed his brother close to his chest, throwing Jongin a suspicious look.

“What are you doing out in the court? If I’m not mistaken, students are not really allowed to be here after class.”

Jongin raised an eyebrow at him, the stupid grin still on his lips.

“It’s not against any rules as far as I’m aware. Why? Are you going to tell on me?”

Kyungsoo frowned.

“It’s none of my business. And I think you have enough people who talk about you as it is.”

Jongin’s grin faded for a second, and Kyungsoo looked away. He took a step back and cleared his throat, tightening his hold on his little brother’s back.

“Anyway. Sorry for disturbing your, uh… practice. We’ll be on our way now.”

“Will you at least tell me your name before you go?” Jongin asked, still looking at him, and looking genuinely interested. “So that I can say hi the next time I see you?”

Kyungsoo took another step back.

“I think there’s no need for me to. I don’t think we will be meeting again,” he responded coldly, turning around and quickly walking away.

“Goodbye, hyung!” Haneul managed to yell, waving at Jongin.

Kyungsoo just fastened his pace. He was rude to the guy without a valid reason, and he knew it. If it was anyone else, Kyungsoo would have never treated another person like this. But something about the rumors flying around about Jongin and the weird aura the boy had around himself made Kyungsoo anxious and restless. He didn’t want to mingle with Jongin, and even more so in the presence of his little brother.

It just didn’t feel safe.

He fastened his pace, wanting to get away from the university as soon as he could, forcing himself not to wonder what the basketball captain was doing in the middle of the basketball court at night, dancing, and why did he want to know his name. He told himself he didn’t want to know Jongin, that he was bad news and getting involved with him would result in nothing but trouble.

But as Kyungsoo walked, he could still feel Jongin’s stare on his back, even when the court and the strange boy in it were long gone.

***

Baekhyun tried his best not to overthink this.

Yet the pile of clothes on his bed definitely was a sign he was overthinking this.

“Black? White?” he murmured to himself, lifting up a white sweater, and then tossing it back to the pile. “No, that’s way too simple…”

Who could blame him? It’s not like there was an official dress code for the first meeting with someone you’ve decided to fake date for a few months. Baekhyun was nervous enough with the reason behind their meeting, and adding up worries of not looking good enough were killing him even more.

“Ugh,” he groaned, dropping the jacket he just picked up onto the floor.

An hour later, he finally had his outfit and hair sorted, and was just adding finishing touches to the faint brown shadow at the corner of his eyes when his phone started buzzing, one of the many sneaked pictures of Kyungsoo drinking strawberry milk flashing on the screen. Baekhyun smiled at the iritated look on his best friend’s face, and swiped to answer the call.

“Yes, my favorite person in the world?”

“Hey. Jongdae’s panicking that Chanyeol is going to be there at five, and we’re not even close to being out the door yet. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready,” Baekhyun said, taking a look at his reflection. “I just need to get there, but it’s not far. How long will it take you guys?”

“Uhm, around… twenty minutes? Jongdae’s still drying his hair, but if I kick his a couple of times, we should be there quicker. If anything, just tell Chanyeol that we’re late and we’re sorry.”

“Wait, you want me to meet him by myself?”

“Don’t, Baekhyun. You’re gonna be fine. If you’re worried about recognizing him, just look for a guy with big ears who towers over everybody else.”

“But—“

“Don’t. Just go, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Kyungsoo hung up on him right after telling him that, and Baekhyun dropped his phone into his bag with a loud sigh. So now he was on his own, too. This was going to be embarrassing, especially without his friends there to keep the atmosphere not as awkward as it definitely was going to be, but Baekhyun didn’t really have a choice , he had to go. So he grabbed his bomber jacket from closet and walked out of his room, turning around to lock the door to his room out of habit. He heard his mom walk out of her room, but didn’t turn around to greet her.

“You’re doing it again?” he heard his mom’s voice behind his back. “I told you he’s not going to steal anything, Baekhyun.”

He nodded, not wanting to argue.

“I’m just being careful.”

“No, you’re being disrespectful,” she said irately. “And I thought you said you were fine with me dating other guys?”

Baekhyun breathed in.

“I’m just taking precautions, mom, nothing else,” he said in a low voice, turning around and hurrying to walk past her, praying for her not to stop him. He just wanted to leave, as quickly as he could.

Thankfully, she didn’t say anything, just glared at him as he walked past, and Baekhyun made it outside with his fists clenched, but emotions still under control. This was no news to him, as he and his mom barely talked on a daily basis, unless she had something to complain about or something to ask for. That was it. Baekhyun always thought of her as more of a person he shares the same house with rather than somebody who was supposed to be family. At least she really didn’t care for him any more than that.

Baekhyun shook his head and messed up his hair with his fingers, trying to get the bad emotions out of his head before he meets his friends. It was a beautiful Saturday, the sun was shining and it was warm, and the air smelled like freshly cut grass and a little bit of sweetness of blooming flowers. It was too nice of a day to be sad.

So Baekhyun fixed his jacket and started walking, his movements gaining energy with every step he took. He made himself think of Park Chanyeol instead, think of what he will be like and how to become friends with him quicker.

It wasn’t a long walk from his home to the coffee shop they agreed to meet at, so Baekhyun was there a few minutes early. He walked in, looking around for someone who “towered over everybody else” and had big ears. Since most of the people were sitting, that didn’t really help. He stretched his neck to look at the tables in the corners, and noticed one guy sitting by himself in the corner. All Baekhyun could see was his back, but he had big ears and seemed to be pretty tall, with broad shoulders, so he thought it was safe to assume it was him.

“Uh… Park Chanyeol?” he asked hesitantly as he approached the table.

The guy turned around, big eyes meeting Baekhyun’s, and the latter’s heart almost melted. Park Chanyeol was so cute, looking up at him like that, with those big eyes that seemed to be taking up his whole face, and his ears so cutely sticking out from underneath his chestnut brown hair. He had full lips and pretty fair skin, a long neck with a defined Adam’s apple, and his jawline was also sharp and almost picturesque. He was definitely one of the most handsome guys he’d ever seen, and Baekhyun did not understand how he never noticed him before.

“Y-Yes, I’m Chanyeol,” the guy nodded hastily, and Baekhyun had to stop himself from chuckling when he saw his ears turn red. “You’re Baekhyun… right?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Baekhyun said with a smile, dropping his backpack onto the couch on the opposite side from Chanyeol. “It’s really nice to meet you. I’m really grateful for you even being here, having in mind what we – I – are asking of you.”

Chanyeol looked away with faint blush on his cheeks, and Baekhyun once again found it awfully cute. He sat down, staring at the guy, and noting the difference in height and body structure they had. Chanyeol was taller, longer even when sitting, and his shoulders were broader. His arms and chest were toned, Baekhyun could see the lines of muscle even with the loose t-shirt he had on. Well, no surprise – Chanyeol was a basketball player, and majoring in sports at that. It was to be expected, but Baekhyun still found it to be nice.

“Are you busy today?” he asked with a friendly smile, trying to set Chanyeol more at ease. “I’m not holding you back on anything, am I?”

“No, no,” Chanyeol shook his head instantly. “I’m free. I’m only meeting my team captain at eight in the evening, so there’s still plenty of time.”

“Your team captain?” Baekhyun rested his chin in his palm, looking at Chanyeol curiously. “What are you going to do? I hope you’re not planning to train on Saturdays, too?”

Clearly still nervous, Chanyeol his lips.

“No. We’re actually forbidden to workout outside classes. All of us are strictly monitored by professors at college, so our calorie intake, workouts, everything is watched. You can get into serious trouble for doing something like that.”

“That’s kind of awful,” Baekhyun frowned, taking a glance at Chanyeol bottle of orange juice. “Are you not allowed caramel macchiato every once in while then, either? How can you live?”

Chanyeol shrugged, absent mindedly tapping his long fingers on the table.

“I don’t remember how it tastes. You can’t crave something you don’t remember the taste of.”

Baekhyun nodded, agreeing. “I guess so. But still, being controlled like that should be hard. It’s annoying when you can’t just do what you want.”

“I want to be on the national team,” Chanyeol said, looking at his hands. “That’s worth trying hard for.”

Baekhyun looked at him. So that’s what was his goal? National team?

“That’s kind of amazing, really,” Baekhyun told him sincerely.

Chanyeol bit his lip, cheeks once again reddening.

“Do you do this often then, mister soon-to-be-national-athlete?” Baekhyun joked, giving the taller a teasing smile. “I’m sure there’s tons of people who want to date a person like that. Am I one of many fake boyfriends in line?”

Chanyeol leaned back, brown eyes big as he looked at him.

“You’re the only one,” he said, voice even and convinced, and even though he knew those words didn’t have any special meaning, Baekhyun still felt something stir in his heart. He looked into Chanyeol’s eyes, surprised by how serious the other seemed to be, and maybe just a tiny bit touched.

Chanyeol’s eyes were really beautiful, he caught himself thinking.

“Hey guys, sorry we’re late!” Jongdae startled Baekhyun out of his thoughts, appearing next to him and plopping down on the couch with a big smile. “Hey, Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol greeted him with a startled smile, whilst Jongdae didn’t waste time to throw his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders.

“Kyungsoo’s getting us all caramel macchiato. I asked for extra whipped cream for you, buddy.”

Baekhyun smiled at him, feeling himself getting slowly infected by the other’s constant happiness, and ruffled his hair playfully.

“Thanks, Dae.”

It didn’t take long for Kyungsoo to appear with a tray and four cups of coffee, three of them topped with whipped cream and one without. He set the tray on the table and turned to take the seat next to Chanyeol. He greeted him with a small, awkward smile, and that did not slip past Baekhyun’s eyes.

Kyungsoo was rarely awkward. Most of the time he did not care enough for what people thought of him to feel uncomfortable.

“Hey, Soo,” Baekhyun said, giving his best friend a smile. “Please get the caramel macchiato at least once, love. I know your love for your latte, but trust me, it’s way better.”

“I don’t really like sweet stuff, Baekhyun,” he shook his head and reached out for one of the cups, placing it in front of Chanyeol. “We got this for you, although we didn’t really know what you like to drink. I hope you like it.”

Chanyeol looked at the drink and then at Kyungsoo, looking absolutely at a loss of what to do, and Baekhyun couldn’t hold his laugher in.

“He can’t drink it, Soo,” he reached out for Chanyeol’s cup from across the table to save the taller from the uncomfortable situation. “The uni’s monitoring Sports students’ calorie intake, apparently. Just drink it yourself and everybody wins.”

“Really?” Kyungsoo looked at Chanyeol with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, I never knew about it. Should I get you something else? What do you like to drink?”

“It’s okay,” Chanyeol shook his head frantically, his ears quickly turning red because of all the attention. “I have juice. I like juice the best. Thank you.”

Not wanting to fluster him any further, Kyungsoo nodded, turning back to his latte, and Jongdae leaned in, brown eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“They monitor everything you eat? Really?”

“Not everything. We’re allowed cheat days once a month and so… It’s really not that bad,” Chanyeol explained, throwing a look at Baekhyun. “They’re not starving us or anything either. We just need to take care of our bodies if we want to make it to the national team.”

“Woah,” Jongdae’s grin widened. “You’re going to be famous one day then, Chanyeol ah! Let’s take a picture now and sign it, so that I can sell it when you become famous all over the world.”

Chanyeol sighed. “You should ask our captain for that, or Sehun. I’m lacking too much so I most probably won’t make it.”

“Eyy, what’s with that lack of confidence?” Jongdae frowned, poking Chanyeol’s elbow. “I’m sure you’re great. Not just anyone can play as a center, you know!”

“He’s right,” Baekhyun nodded, looking at Chanyeol seriously. “There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it, Chanyeol ah. I’m sure you’ll do just as well as others, if not better.”

Chanyeol looked at him, startled but touched, and Baekhyun would have smiled at him if he didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Oh my gosh, you two are already like a married couple! This is so working out, Soo, I bet my head on it!”

“Don’t bet things you can easily lose,” Kyungsoo grumbled, and Jongdae rolled his eyes at him.

“Anyways,” he rested his elbows on the table. “As you mentioned Sehun… me and Soo we’re talking about that on the way here, and we kinda want to ask yo if you could perhaps… not tell him that you dating Baekhyun is fake?..”

That question ripped Baekhyun out from the pleasant atmosphere they had till that moment. He didn’t really think about the whole fake boyfriend thing, he was just enjoying getting to know Chanyeol at that moment, but then Jongdae reminded them all what this meeting really was for. The fake boyfriend deal.

“Lie to Sehun?” Chanyeol asked, and the tone he said it with clearly showed that he was not too happy with the request.

“Why can’t he tell his best friend?” Baekhyun asked, looking at Jongdae. “I’m sure he won’t say anything to other people.”

Jongdae looked at Chanyeol.

“Chanyeol, are you absolutely sure Sehun won’t tell anyone?”

Chanyeol was about to answer, but then he breathed out right before saying something, seemingly thinking of something. Baekhyun looked at him worriedly. He didn’t really think telling Chanyeol’s best friend is that big of a trouble – he would never keep a secret like that from Kyungsoo, for sure. He didn’t want to make Chanyeol keep secrets from Sehun, either.

“I won’t tell him,” Chanyeol said all of a sudden with a low voice, surprising Baekhyun. “I’ll keep it a secret.”

“O-Okay,” Jongdae nodded, obviously surprised by the change in Chanyeol’s demeanor, but thankfully not asking any further. “Can you and Sehun join us for lunch from now on, then? I mean, we need to let people know you and Baek are dating, so I thought that would be a good way to start, uh… spending more time together.”

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Chanyeol shrugged. “I’m sure Sehun won’t mind. He actually would really like—“

All of a sudden, his eyes widened, and he clasped his hand over his lips, shocked.

“I-I’m sorry,” he shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Baekhyun nodded, hoping that will make him feel less awkward. He couldn’t deal with those big eyes and that shyness, it was giving him way too much temptation to feel attracted to Chanyeol and he couldn’t.

“Sehun would like what?” Jongdae asked, leaning in with his knowing grin.

At that moment, Chanyeol’s phone started buzzing on the table.

“Take your call, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo nodded, pulling Jongdae back by his collar and glaring at him threatfully.

Chanyeol murmured a quick sorry and swiped to answerthe call. Jongdae leaned over the table to whisper something to Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun took a sip of his coffee, trying not to listen to the conversation the taller was having, but he couldn’t really not hear it when Chanyeol was right there.

“Yeah? I’m at the coffee shop in front of the campus. Yeah, the yellow one. I’m sitting in the corner with three friends. Let me know when you get here.”

“Is somebody coming?” Jongdae asked when Chanyeol put his phone back on the table.

“I had an appointment with our captain, but he wants to meet a little early,” Chanyeol looked at Baekhyun sorrily. “I’m sorry I can’t stay for longer today. We really need to talk about… a lot of things.”

Baekhyun shook his head. “It’s okay, Chanyeol ah. We can talk about them on Monday, or whenever you have time. I’m really grateful to you for doing this for me.”

Chanyeol smiled at him, and It was a beautiful, genuine smile. Looking at him, Baekhyun couldn’t help but respond with one of his own. Jongdae snickered at his side, and Baekhyun knew that as soon as Chanyeol leaves there won’t be an end to his teasing.

“I—“ Chanyeol was about to say something, when somebody approached their table.

“Well, isn’t this a lucky day.”

All four of them turned their heads to see Kim Jongin standing there with a grin. He was wearing a loose white bomber jacket on top of a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans, and with his caramel brown hair and tanned skin he looked like he just stepped out of a magazine photoshoot. He had a bright red Nike sports bag in one hand, which he dropped next to Chanyeol’s backpack as he took a step forward and patted the other’s head.

“Thanks, Chanyeol,” he told him, and before anyone could register what was happening, he reached out to grab Kyungsoo by his elbow and pulled him up from the chair. With a smile, he then slid his fingers down the stunned smaller boy’s elbow and wrapped them around Kyungsoo’s wrist instead.

“What the ?..” Jongdae managed to stutter out before Jongin turned around and pulled Kyungsoo away from the table.

Baekhyun watched his best friend getting dragged out of the coffee shop by the school’s weirdo with wide eyes.

Chanyeol turned his head back at them.

“They know each other?” all three of them asked at the same time.

“What the are you trying to do to me, Kim Jongin?!” Kyungsoo hissed as he was being pulled to somewhere, Jongin’s iron grip on his hand unmoving no matter how hard he tried to push him off. “Let me go!”

The taller didn’t answer, pulling Kyungsoo behind the corner of the coffee shop into some alley, and then pushing the smaller against the wall. Damn his lithe, deceiving muscles and hidden strength, Kyungsoo had no chance to even put up a decent fight.

“Stop moving around for a second, you peanut,” Jongin chuckled, settling his hands on Kyungsoo’s squirming shoulders. “Gosh, you’re so small.”

Kyungsoo scoffed, swatting at Jongin’s hands. “Thanks for noting that down for me, I appreciate it. Maybe in the next life you’ll be shorter than I am and then I will laugh, you .”

“Wait, wait,” Jongin caught his thin wrists with his hand, still smiling. “I have a couple of things to say to you, peanut, and after you hear them, you’re free to go. Does that work for you?”

Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes at him, but stopped swatting. Not like he had a chance to push the guy away either way.

“Talk.”

“’’Kay. Your brother,” Jongin looked into his eyes. “Did he talk about me?”

Kyungsoo sighed, feeling more frustrated with every passing second.

“No. He’s a toddler, he doesn’t give a about you and your weird activities. He was way more interested in blue coloured ice cream at the convenience store.”

“Good,” Jongin put his hands on his shoulders again. “Did you tell anyone about seeing me there?”

“No? Honestly, Kim Jongin, if you didn’t want any more people talking about you, you should have left me the alone. My friends are going to be assuming all kinds of things right now…”

“That’s mean,” Jongin told him, tilting his head. “But anyways. I need you to make sure you don’t tell anyone in the uni about what you saw that night. Can you promise me that?”

Kyungsoo pressed his palms against Jongin’s stomach and tried to push him back like that, but the basketball captain didn’t even budge. And now it looked like Kyungsoo was groping his stomach. The smaller pulled his hands back instantly as if they were burned.

“I didn’t even think of telling anyone, didn’t you hear,” he groaned. “I won’t tell! I don’t care enough to tell. Now move.”

The smile faded away from Jongin’s lips and Kyungsoo stopped moving, looking up at him irately. The taller still had his hands resting on his shoulders and it made him feel small, which he hated. He was a small person and he knew it, but he hated when people put emphasis on it like that, and Kim Jongin was abusing the fact the whole three minutes since they’ve met.

“It’s really important to me,” the other said in a quieter voice. “I can’t afford to let people take this away. I… I trust you, okay?”

Kyungsoo looked up at his expression, his eyes.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” he said seriously. “Not even my friends. You can be calm about that, but refrain from dancing out in the open like that in the future if you don’t want people to know about it.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Jongin shrugged, taking a step back and looking at the top of Kyungsoo’s head. “Are you above 170?”

“On the other hand, I’m telling the whole campus.”

Jongin laughed, and it was a happy, light sound that made Kyungsoo want to smile back at him just a tiny bit. But he wasn’t going to. He pushed past the taller to get out of the corner he was manhandled into, and strode back to the coffee shop before Kim Jongin could mess with his mind any more.

He didn’t see the basketball captain smile as he watched him leave. Nor he knew that, on the contrary from what he thought, this was not going to be the last time he talks to Kim Jongin.

***

Saturday and Sunday went past, and Chanyeol was still unable to believe the things that were happening.

All of a sudden, after silently crushing on Baekhyun for two years, he talked to Baekhyun, met with Baekhyun again, and on top of that agreed to be Baekhyun’s fake boyfriend. That was a lot of contact in just a few days, and Chanyeol didn’t know whether to be happy about it or be depressed about the fact that Baekhyun only saw him as a fake boyfriend, or friend at most, but not as someone whom he could potentially like.

Knowing that was hard, but lying to Sehun was even harder. Knowing that the younger will see right through him if he says it out loud, he just sent a text saying I’m dating Baekhyun to him, and received a zillion of exclamatory marks in response. He didn’t have the chance to see his best friend during the weekend, but he knew, once Monday comes Sehun is going to come after him. He hoped he wouldn’t mess everything up by saying something suspicious, that would make Sehun think he was lying.

Of course, he could have just told Sehun the truth. But he knew that if he would have, Sehun would’ve never let him agree to the whole fake boyfriend deal. Sehun was protective of him, and he would never allow Chanyeol to put himself in a situation where he constantly had to be around Baekhyun knowing he doesn’t like him back.

Chanyeol didn’t know himself why he agreed to do this, knowing that it’s not going to anything but hurt him in the end. But maybe he was just that slightly desperate, just a little bit too blind to his own pain when an opportunity to help Baekhyun and to be around him appeared.

Maybe in the future he would regret it, but at that moment he didn’t care.

He just wanted to try and see what happens.

"A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying."

B. F. Skinner
 

Author's note

Hello~
It's already May?.. Time is going by so fast. The weather's gotten warmer and flowers are blooming, and it feels nice ^^
As always, I'm sorry for the long break I took, not only because of school (it's really hard to write when I have classes, exams and assignments...), but also because I'm still continously getting stuck with the chapters I write. I'm guessing it's because it's the beginning of the story, and I have so much to write so that I don't know where to even begin, if that makes sense. I'm also really sorry if this chapter seemed lacking and boring. I'll still continue writing this story, hopefully will eventually get over this slump too, and I hope you all can like it in the end. Don't give up on this story just yet ^^ 
Have a beautiful day~ And happy Baekhyun day too <3
Lots of love <333